Curse of Curves
by FearlessDranzer
Summary: If you told senior Cloud, that he'd have the hots for his cruel math teacher he'd call you crazy. Between school and track he's too busy for love. But gradually, he discovers his burning attraction for the man and now he's determined to seduce him.
1. Part 1

Curse of Curves

By : Fearless_ Dranzer

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy 7, I do own this plot line and a piece of cheese.

Part 1

Chapter 1 - Mr. Brightside

I stared out the window in my English class. It was the first day of the beginning of the end—that is, the first day of my senior year of high school. This was it. This was supposed to be the best year of my life; so far it seemed exactly the same. I was listening to the same nonsense everyone hears on the first day of school, I just wasn't 'listening' listening. I was texting Tifa who strategically sat in front of me. Her long brown hair covered parts of my desk, but it didn't bother me. I figured if I had hair that long I wouldn't be able to control it either. A quick glance at the front of the room told me that the teacher was riffling through his desk, searching for papers to hand out to us.

My cell phone lit up and I could see its blue glow through my shorts pocket. I pulled it out and checked out the message, using Tifa's back to hide my actions. The text was from Tifa.

_You should see the new math teacher, they say he's delicious!!! _

I almost laughed out loud at her ability to incorporate Fergie into her every-day text messages, it was definitely a talent.

I texted her back.

_That's great and when I grow breasts I'll care._

Her response was quick due to the full keyboard she employed.

_I just hope Reno will be able to control himself…_

I grimaced at that, clearly remembering all the times last year he refused to go alone to the hell that is detention and dragged me down with him. But it was senior year and it was supposed to be the perfect year, so I was ready for some weird type of magic that might make Reno behave for once in his damn life. I was seriously delusional.

When the bell rang Tifa got up quickly but I made a big scene of yawning as I picked my face up off the desk it had been glued to for the past fifteen minutes.

"Hurry it up! I wanna go see this new teacher!" Tifa whined, pulling on my arm as she tried to get me to stand up quicker.

I brushed her up and rubbed my eyes a little. "I'm up! I'm up! Jeez, this guy had better look like David Beckham with the way you're going on about him." Tifa snorted at me a dragged me down the hallway.

"You know for the fastest guy in school, you walk pretty damn slow." Tifa complained, but I could tell she was joking by the sparkle in her chocolate colored eyes.

"I run distance; I can go forever…just not very fast." I responded. Tifa laughed and flung her hair over her shoulder. Tifa was my best friend, we'd known each other since we were in diapers and even though she was cute, I thought of her more like a sister than a potential girlfriend. Besides, she had her heart set on Barret, the star quarterback on our Varsity football team. He hasn't noticed her, but I'm pretty sure it'll just be a matter of time. It's not easy to miss a girl like Tifa. Brown hair down her back, creamy skin, perfect hourglass figure and a great personality—Tifa attracted all kinds of guys.

"Yo!" A voice yelled out and Reno appeared out of the crowd, we high-fived and he hooked an arm around each of our shoulders. "So this new teacher…"

"Is a total babe!" Yuffie squealed as she popped up in front of us with a smiling Aerith and quiet Vincent in tow.

"You saw him?" Tifa gasped.

Yuffie shook her short bobbed hair and pointed a thumb in the direction of Aerith whose long braid swung with her hips with every step she took. "Aerith told me—and he must be gorgeous for Aerith to say anything."

Reno groaned. "Holy crap, he must be!"

"What's his problem?" I asked.

Yuffie shrugged, "Oh, he's just afraid the new teacher will steal all the 'babes' away from him."

I laughed because it was so stereotypical Reno. I waved to a few guys on the cross-country team that I occasionally hang out with, but too quickly we'd gotten to the math class room and Aerith was leaving us. She had English this period a few classrooms down. Yuffie picked in the door way and let out a small screech as Reno grabbed her hips and pulled her back so he could get a look.

"Oh crap!" Reno yelled. "He's a total babe magnet!"

"It's ok, Reno" Yuffie patted him on the head, "You still have me!"

"You're no babe!"

"Oh!" Yuffie let out a mad sigh and I flicked Reno in the forehead with a roll of my eyes.

"That's it. You guys don't appreciate me. Watch this." Reno yelled and he started working on pooling tears in his eyes. He had striking light green eyes that perfectly complimented his hair and when he got upset, were made all the more striking.

"Here it comes." Tifa sighed with a giggle.

Reno went running into the classroom and rushed up to the new teacher. From the position I was peering into the door way from I couldn't see the new teacher, but when I realized Reno was pointing to his forehead and then the door, I knew he was trying to get me in trouble… again.

Vincent must have realized the same thing as me because he glanced down at me with burning red eyes and I shrugged my shoulder. No one ever really took Reno seriously anyway.

Suddenly Reno came stomping back and he crossed his arms over his chest. "He doesn't care, can you believe it!" Reno went on martyring himself while Yuffie laughed at him.

The bell rang and we went inside the class room taking seats towards the back. One guy came running in behind me, but everyone's always late on the first day. So I was surprised to find that when I sat down and turned around, the new teacher was glaring at me.

"You're late." He said pointedly. On first impression I could tell that the guy was a total dick. He had hair that was even longer than Tifa's and it was pure silver. But he wasn't old, he looked like he was barely twenty and his face was perfect and unlined with sharp cheekbones and full pouty lips. His were what held my attention though, they were such a bright green that my breath caught in my throat and my heart skipped a few beats. If I were a girl I probably would have dropped dead from the full force of his good looks aimed at me.

But the glare he was shooting me, if looks could kill… Jesus, the guy has fucking lasers for eyes.

He was still waiting for an answer. "Um, it's the first day of school… I got lost? Yeah…lost." I mentally applauded myself for my quick thinking. Cloud Strife, you the man.

The teacher cocked an eyebrow at me and that little act told me he didn't believe me, it also told me that beyond reasonable doubt—I hated this man. He walked over to his desk, with quick sure steps and under his button-up shirt I could see taunt, lithe muscle. Muscle like a runner. He picked up a file and opened it.

"What's you're name?"

"Cloud." I replied.

"Cloud?" He responded.

"Yes, Cloud."

I was ready to punch that smug smile on his face when he pulled a card out of the file. "According to your student file, you've been here for four years. So either you're lying to me or you're too simple-minded to remember the layout of your school." He replied.

My mouth dropped open and I'm pretty sure I heard Tifa gasp as well.

"I wasn't the only one who was late." I replied when I got my voice back.

"Unfortunately, I'm not allowed to hand out detention slips on the first day, but rest assured Mr…." he glanced down at the file, "Mr. Cloud, I'll keep an eye out for you." With that he turned around and I smashed my head into the desk.

"Is there a problem?" The teacher called out, twisting his body around to face me.

I waved him off. "No…no it just seems my neck muscles have given out on me." He ignored my sarcasm and turned back around. I could tell the rest of this school year was going to be fucking fantastic.

My pocket lit up and I knew it was Tifa texting me but I either couldn't bring myself to check the phone or I was too afraid of what might happen if the teacher caught me.

There was tapping as the dick wrote on the board. "My name is Mr. Jenova and I'm your new math teacher. I graduated from Shinra High four years ago as the valedictorian and…" Jenova continued talking but I just didn't give a shit.

For forty-two minutes, my eyes remained glued to the clock at the front of the room.

When the bell finally rang my friends got up and crowded around my desk. I wasn't the trouble maker that Reno was but I wasn't the saint that Aerith was either. Getting in trouble on my own was so unlike me that instantly my friends were concerned. I was Cloud, the nice guy who actually managed to finish first occasionally. I was usually mellow and even-tempered, I was the friend people liked to tell their secrets too. I was the guy every girl had a crush on at one point in their high school careers. I was the untouchable guy who never had a girl friend but was super sweet and funny and a good athlete.

Chapter 2- King of Hearts

We left the class room but not before I took a final look over my shoulder and saw those piercing green eyes still glaring at me. I glared back and could feel my cheeks growing redder.

Aerith caught up to us while Reno was in the middle of ranting about Jenova. "What the fuck dude? I mean, we were all late and then that guy came in behind you! I mean what was his problem?"

Sensible Vincent spoke, "He's a new teacher and he's young, maybe he just felt that he had to make an example so the other students wouldn't try to take advantage of him."

Tifa shrugged, "Yeah, but Cloud? I mean Cloud is the biggest sweetheart! He's never hurt anybody!"

I groaned at all the attention.

Reno grabbed my neck and rubbed my head with his fist while Yuffie latched on my arm. "Poor Cloud!" She said. "Our blond-haired, blue-eyed baby boy!"

"He's growing up so fast!" Reno sobbed and I had to remove myself from the both of them before I killed one of the two.

We walked to the cafeteria and took a seat near the windows so that the bright sun almost blinded us, but we basked in the heat of its glare. The girls talked about how cute they thought Jenova was, even if he was a total jackass. A guy from the team came over and for a few minutes Barrett joined us and Tifa was so happy I thought she was going to explode. Vincent was his normal quiet self and Reno was his normal, loud obnoxious self, all was right in the world. The guy I was talking to left and shortly afterwards, Barrett left too and Tifa's mood deflated.

Aerith took up the task of trying to lighten her moon. "Tifa, I'm sure he noticed you, he just has so much stuff of his mind—he is the star quarterback of the football team you know…" Tifa sniffled.

I chewed my rice and decided to step in and rescue Aerith, Tifa can be pretty vicious when she gets upset. "Look, Tiff. I know he noticed you because he looked at you more than he looked at anyone else. And every time you talked to him he smiled ridiculously."

"Really!" Tifa said, instantly she was happier.

"Yes, re…." I dropped my forkful of rice and stared open-mouthed in shock.

"Dude, are you alright?" Reno asked?

Tifa followed my line of vision over to the object that caught my attention.

"Oh shit."

"You've got to be kidding me." Yuffie said and I just groaned and had the biggest urge to smash my face into my tray of food.

"Dude you probably have the shittiest luck I've ever seen." Reno stated around a mouthful of his turkey sandwich.

"Thanks, Reno." I replied. Jenova glanced over at us and I looked away.

"Let's just ignore him, I suggested." Reluctantly, the others followed my advice and the conversation slowly turned back to normal.

"Hey Aerith, did you see who Jenova came in with?" Yuffie started wheedling and Aerith turned pink. "Holy crap girl!" Yuffie yelled, noticing Aerith's obvious response when she brought Zack to her attention. Zack is a teacher, but he's probably just as young as Jenova and insists we call him by his first name especially since some of us were in high school with him. He's Aerith's English teacher and mine too.

"Oh she's got it bad." Tifa said to me and I smirked in response. What a tangled web we weave. Trying to return the favor, Tifa saved Aerith from further abuse from Reno and Yuffie. "Hey does anyone know where Cid is?"

"Lunch detention." Vincent said.

"But Jenova said he couldn't give out detentions on the first day of school." I said, confused.

Vincent shrugged, "I guess that rule doesn't apply to Shinra." I nodded, Mr. Shinra was the president of the school and his family had been the founder of this humble establishment. Shinra and Cid had been battling it out for years, in my opinion, Shinra will be very lonely once (if) Cid graduates.

Towards the end of the period Vincent called my attention to Jenova. "He's been staring at you all period Cloud." Vincent said while shooting a blank look over at Jenova and Zack.

"Ohhhh! Cloud I finally found out who your secret lover is!" Yuffie joked, Yuffie's been convinced for a while that the reason I don't have a girlfriend is because I have a secret lover. Yeah, I think Yuffie knows how stupid the idea sounds, I just think she doesn't really care. It's in her nature to be silly and cute and it's one of the best things she has going for her. Hanging out around Aerith and Tifa could give any girl a severe inferiority complex, but not Yuffie. It response to her buxom brunette friends, Yuffie because the pixie-like, waif whose exotic Wutai features helped her garner attention. And attention is what a girl like Yuffie runs on, that and pixie sticks.

"Lucky." Reno joked and I'm still not sure who the lucky one was in mine and Jenova's secret relationship.

"I don't like it." Vincent said completely serious and I had to agree with him, I didn't like it one bit either.

Zack noticed us looking and waved at Aerith, who waved back shyly. He threaded his way through students and come over to us holding a packet of paper.

"Aerith! I wanted to congratulate you! I started reading your summer assignment and I have to say it's really good! Way above and beyond the requirements, good job girl!" Zack praised Aerith until I thought she was going to stay permanently pink.

"Thank you so much Mr. Zack." Aerith replied demurely looking at her feet.

"Aerith it's just Zack, now the real reason I came over… I wanted to know if you would be willing to join the newspaper club." Zack asked.

Aerith's head whipped up and her smile had a thousand watts. "Oh, of course ! I'll join thank you for asking me!"

"Alright, the first meetings on Monday! I expect to see you there!"

"Of course!"

Zack walked away and our table was strangely quiet for a few minutes—

at least until Reno broke the silence.

"Whi-pp-ed." He sang and Aerith blushed, covering her face with her hands and Yuffie whacked Reno on the head while Tifa comforted Aerith.

But they all kept sneaking glances at Jenova until Reno joked and the bell rang. "Wouldn't it just be crazy if Jenova was a run-for-fun type too Cloud?"

"I hate you." I muttered at him as I thought back to my earlier revelation that he had a runner's body.

Tifa rolled her eyes. "Don't jinx him Reno!"

Vincent though stared hard at Jenova's retreating back, "Murphy's Law." He said and we all fell quiet as we walked to our next classes.

Chapter 3 - DOA

I barely made it into the locker room before the bell rang; I had to go to my locker to grab my cross-country clothes so that I could maximize my time before practice starts.

Almost everyone had already come and changed since the locker assignments had been mailed out a few days prior. I changed in solitude into a pair of bright green shorts with a Puma insignia, a t-shirt with a running quote on the back and my Mizunos. As I laced up my Mizunos, I took a deep breath, this was one of the first minutes all day I'd actually had to myself and I savored it before I went out to join the other people in my class.

The teacher was going taking attendance when I made it to the gym and I managed to make roll call just in time to hear my name. I went over and stood next to Barrett who was near a few other football guys and their cheerleader girlfriends.

"Heard what happened to you bro. Fucking harsh." Barrett said in his deep voice, he had his massive arms crossed over his chest and I felt small next to him. Which was in fact perfectly understandable since I was barely 5'7 and he was well over six feet. He was a big hulking football player, I was a scrawny little distance runner. I had tried going out for lacrosse with Vincent and Reno, let's just say I'm definitely a runner.

I shrugged a thin shoulder. "You know what I'm just going to ignore him for the rest of the year, maybe I'll keep out of trouble."

Barrett laughed in response to that. "Good luck with that, I heard Reno's in your class."

I had to laugh at that, yeah my plan was pretty much trash once you through Reno into the equation. Reno, the guy who somehow managed to orchestrate every senior prank for the last five years. Reno could ruin anyone's best laid plans.

"All I know is that I'm getting sick of all the girls goin' crazy over him." Barrett grumbled.

I saw and opening and dived for it. "Yeah, thank god Tifa doesn't like him; I'd have to listen to her go on about his long flowing locks for hours." I laughed and laid the bait.

He took it.

"Oh yeah? Tifa doesn't like him? What kind of guy does Tifa like?"

I spent the rest of the period singing Tifa's praises to Barrett and let me tell you, that girl owes me big time.

When the 8th period bell rang I was ready to start running. I said good-bye to Barrett in the locker room and to a couple of other guys. I opened my locker and grabbed my orange drawstring bag, it was my track bag and it had some water bottles in it, my cell phone and a few pins, medical tape and other random crap for those just-in-case moments. I also put a clean t-shirt in to change into when I was done with my run.

I tucked my necklace that I wear everywhere into my shirt, Tseng—my coach, doesn't like it when we were jewelry to practice. But I never take this necklace off; it was a gift from my parents before they died in a car crash a few years ago. I took my knee straps out of my bag and wrapped them around my legs right under my knee caps. There meant for tendonitis, which while normal a problem girls have, my excessive running for the past few years on uneven ground has really damaged my knees. I used the medical tape to wrap my feet in a few places to protect blisters I had been nursing for a few days and was finally satisfied that I was ready.

I left through the back door of the locker room that brought me out to the soccer and foot ball fields, I dropped my bag off in the dugout the cross-country teams occupied and started my thirty minute run.

I set the timer on my watch and headed off into the extensive woods that run behind my school and surround it, cutting it off from most of the outside world. At this point, Yuffie would be heading to gymnastics practice, Cid would still be in detention, Tifa would be going to kickboxing and Aerith, Reno and Vincent would be walking home. Barrett would be at football practice and I'm doing extra running before my own practice starts.

Rude would probably be meeting up with Aerith, Reno and Vincent and he would probably drive them to get ice cream and then to Tifa's family's pub. All of them worked there part time and when Tifa isn't at school or dance practice she bartends there. Even I have a job over there during the summer.

By the time I got back to the dugout I was hot and sweaty since even though I had gone easy, it was horribly humid out. I drank some water and changed shirts before most of the guys even made it to the dugout.

Coach Tseng came up to me while the last few guys were straggling in, the girls had already started their warm-up run.

"A little pre-practice running?" Tseng joked. It was no secret I was the best on the team. The team knew it, I knew it, and the rest of the school knew it. And since the seniors from last year had graduated, I wasn't going to have any real competition during practice, so we'd talked about me doing extra running before the work-outs.

I grinned back. "I think we may have a solution to your practice problems Cloud. An old friend of mine and a cross-country veteran is back in town and when I told him about your situation, well he offered to help. He's the assistant coach this year and he also offered to be your running partner for workouts and distance runs." Tseng said and I immediately was excited and then I remembered.

Murphy's Law.

"Here let me introduce you Cloud!" Tseng said and he went to get someone. I didn't move and I wasn't shocked when he came back with his arm around Jenova's shoulders. It was just my fucking luck.

"This is Sephiroth Jenova, we used to run together a few years ago." Tseng said and Sephiroth offers me a smirk.

I just glare back as I feel my cheeks heating up.

"I'll only be observing today." He said in that deep emotionless voice of his.

"Whoop-de-fucking-do." I mumbled under my breath and turned away to join the rest of my team for a workout. No one noticed that I was uncharacteristically quiet and I didn't speak for the rest of practice.

Sephiroth was gone by the time I was done but the damage was done. My favorite time of the day was ruined.

It seemed like no matter how hard I resolved to try and ignore Sephiroth, he just kept popping up out of no where to ruin my life.

End Part 1

Diana - OK! This story is a long time in coming and is oddly almost autobiographical. Tell me you haven't had a crush on one of your teachers at least once in your lifetime? It's just a little strange because I planned this story out at the beginning of the year and now let's just say I've got my eyes set on a certain guy.

Don't worry things haven't even gotten near the scale that they will go with Sephiroth and Cloud.

And I'm having trouble pinpointing Cloud's personality since in this story he's supposed to be laid back and mellow. But does anyone really know what Cloud's personality is like… he's just so quiet….

Anyway thanks to my lovely beta!


	2. Part 2

Curse of Curves

By : Fearless_Dranzer

Part 2

Chapter 4 - Calling All Cars

I walked into the school the next morning early, but I almost always am early. Not only am I a morning person, but I live in a dorm on campus, one of the few students to do so. Most of the students live in the town around Shinra High and usually only the teachers live in the dorms but in a few special cases (like my own), exceptions are made. My parents died a long time ago-- at least it feels that way now. It feels like they've always been gone, but I can remember a time when they were still there. The differences between my life then and now are so extreme, I feel like a totally different person.

I twisted the dial on my locker and turned to look at the footsteps I heard approaching me. It was Cid, who usually doesn't even make it to school until second period. He had light blond hair cropped close to his head, he wasn't that much taller than me, but working as a mechanic had given him muscles and bulk. He grinned crookedly at me around the cigarette always present between his teeth. He'd given up smoking a few years ago but he still liked the comfort of having it at hand.

He leaned against the locker next to mine and I could see in his eyes-- a light, light blue--that he was in a serious mood. "I heard about yesterday Cloudy." He said with that strange southern accent he had.

I shrugged my shoulder. One tiny little incident and the whole school seemed to know about it. Granted it was my friends and it was really cruel, but it wasn't that serious and I was over it. It bothered me more that he'd been staring at me all lunch period than the way he'd chewed me out in front of the class.

"You know I hate it when you call me that." I said ignoring the subject and hoping he'd take the hint.

His lips pursed and I could tell he was gauging my reaction and trying to find a way to respond. "I know you're not one for attention Cloud, but Vinny told me and it has to be serious for Vinny to complain about something."

I shrugged my shoulder but I understood what he was trying to say. Even Vincent thought yesterday was weird. And _that_ was saying something. Suddenly I felt pissed.

"That's not even the worst thing. Can you fucking believe this? He's the assistant coach for my cross country team and he's supposed to be 'personally' in charge of my training. And yesterday he wouldn't stop _staring_ at me!" I groaned and it was probably the closest I'd ever come to ranting, but the man just grated on my nerves.

Cid raised an eyebrow. "I'm probably not the best person to be telling you this, but you should probably just try to lie low. Stay out of the line of fire. I don't like this Jenova, he sounds like a real jackass. Just ignore him." Honest advice from an honest source.

I snorted. "That's just really stupid on two levels. One, you can't ignore your teacher and two, why am I taking advice on behaving from you?" He punched me in the shoulder but I held up my hands in mock defeat. "Don't worry, I'm planning on lying low for a few weeks until Jenova forgets all about this." I threw a few of my books into my locker and grabbed my Chemistry book, pencil and a calculator. I'd come back after the double period for my other crap.

"I'll be seeing yah." Cid drawled and he brushed the corner of his lip with his thumb, another one of his many quirky habits.

I waved absentmindedly and he headed back down the hallway towards shop class. In all honesty he probably should have been teaching the class since he'd worked as a mechanic for so long. He had to help his mom support his brothers and sisters, so he usually spent all his free time working. He just had a temper and it tended to get him in trouble, a lot.

I started walking down the hallway and glanced up at the sign hanging over an awards case. The sign was an old record board from cross-country, my eyes ran up and down it and my jaw dropped. Every record I'd been striving for was held by none other than the cold ice queen himself, Jenova. I growled deep in my throat and felt like punching something or beating up a small child—maybe even a dog.

I barely had a second to myself before Yuffie ran up to me and tugged on my sleeve. She was bouncing so much, I was getting motion sickness looking at her. She was excited I could tell; her eyes held that sparkle and her cheeks were flushed under her dark tan.

"Oh my god! I was just walking you know, to school and I was minding my own business and..." I started to tune out Yuffie's babbling, when she told stories she tending to babble for the first few minutes before finally cutting to the chase and tell me a pointless story. "So get this! I'm walking past the school parking lot and guess who pulls up next to me?" She was clearly waiting for an answer.

My fake sigh couldn't cover the small smile playing on my lips. "Who?" I asked, humoring her.

"It was Jenova! He was driving a friggin' Dodge Viper. Do you know how much those cost? The guy must be fucking loaded...." I lost track of Yuffie and she didn't notice my smile fall, I stared down the hallway as I watched Jenova unlock the door to his math classroom. He hadn't looked at me, but I could tell he knew I was there. Call it a sixth sense.

"I'm gunna follow him back to his house and then I'm gunna break in and I'm not going to steal anything, I'm just gunna break in to see if he's one of those people who's rich on the outside and poor on the inside you know? Where the outside of their house is gorgeous and the inside is like totally Spartan or something..." I didn't have to look at the inside to Sephiroth's house to know that it was empty inside; it was obvious from looking at his cold exterior.

I shivered and could have sworn that I felt the weight of his cold gaze on my shoulders, like he knew exactly what I was thinking.

"Ok, so maybe I'll break in and like just look around a little..." I held a hand up and she cut off.

"Honestly, Yuffie... I don't think you should break in even if you are just _looking_." I tried to put it gently, but the knowledge was out there; Yuffie was known to have sticky fingers. She laughed and mockingly glared at me. Yuffie was proud of her reputation.

Suddenly Reno came up and pounced on my back and I staggered backwards after letting out a slight yelp.

"Hey!" I yelled.

"Reno, get off of him." Rude said.

"Down boy!" Yuffie giggled. "Don't make me call the pound on you!"

Reno dragged himself off me and suddenly I could stand up straight again. Really mature you guys, picking on the little guy.

"So Cloud, you'll never guess what I saw your lover driving in this morning." He waggled his eyebrows at me suggestively and I rolled my eyes in response.

"I heard, he was driving a Dodge Viper, they're really expensive." I repeated, mockingly making fun of Yuffie with my impression of her high pitched voice.

Reno let out a strange snort but so long as he didn't start whining I felt no need to make fun of him for it. Vincent joined us later, walking towards us in a dark cloud of his natural moodiness. That morning before school, my friends tried their hardest to make me forget the day before. They weren't outwardly saying anything but I knew that they were trying to make me feel better, especially after I told them Jenova was my own personal coach. That part, I could tell, upset Vincent the most. Like me he was getting a strange feeling about Jenova and not a good feeling.

The only person I didn't see was Tifa and that had me more worried that the thought of facing Jenova in a one-on-one melay. Tifa never missed a day of school-- she has thirteen years of perfect attentence for Christ' sake!

I wasn't just being incredibly paranoid and when I sat down first period next to an empty desk in chemistry, I knew she really wasn't here. I sent a text to Vincent and the missing person herself, asking where Tifa was. After double period chemistry, I'd only gotten an answer from Vincent and all that said was a very straightforward, 'I have no idea.'

I bit my lips raw in worry.

Chapter 5 - (Hate) I Really Don't Like You

Third and fourth period dragged on the same as first and second-- slow and Tifa-less. By this point the rest of my friends had started texting me, asking me if I knew where my MIA best friend was. Their questioning set me on edge and I think by fifth period everyone else was feeling my worry and Yuffie was in a state of panic.

Sitting in English was like slow murder. I tapped at my desk, willing the clock to go faster so that I could meet up with the rest of the gang. My hope was that one of them had learned something by now.

My phone glowed and I hurried flipped it open and let out a sigh when I saw that it was just from Yuffie. It said;

_Better watch out Cloudy, word on the street is that Jenova's on the war path._

Wonderful, just another thing to add to my already shitty day. I ran a hand through my hair and the bell rang, a sharp piercing sound echoing right through my skull.

I didn't get up very fast, I waited for the classroom to clear out first, even the teacher left and I pulled out my phone. I speed dialed Tifa and prayed she would answer. It was just so unlike Tifa to not show up or respond to texts that I was starting to get damn worried. The phone rang and rang, eventually going to voice mail, but I didn't leave a message.

So maybe I was over reacting and she was just sick or something, but in the almost fifteen years I've known the girl, she's never gotten sick. She's as healthy as a horse and could kick my ass six ways to Sunday.

Tifa has always had to defend herself against... well I wouldn't call them bullies, more like suitors. A girl with looks like Tifa's tends to attract a lot of guys and not always the most stellar types. So after a close run-in during seventh grade, Tifa took up martial arts and kick boxing. She does hold a few regional titles but she mostly teaches other women how to defend themselves now.

My phone started to glow and I pulled it out. It was from Tifa. A quick glance at the clock told me I had less than three minutes to make it to the other side of the school in time for my next class or I would get my ass mounted on his wall. So I made a quick decision.

I left the class room and answered the phone, keeping an eye out for teachers who would be searching for students like myself, disobeying rules. I kept my head down and tried to hide the phone discreetly in my blond hair.

"Hello." I said softly, trying not to move my lips too much and trying not to attract too much attention.

"Cloud?" A hoarse voice replied, and there was a hiccup in the back round, instantly I was on guard and wary. It sounded like Tifa was dying or crying and since Tifa was healthy as a horse, I had to go with the last one.

"What's the matter Tifa?" I asked, concerned.

She sniffed again and I could tell she had been crying and had been crying for a very long time.

"It's stupid girl stuff." She said trying to persuade me unsuccessfully that nothing was wrong.

"I like listening to your stupid girl stuff."

That made her laugh and I felt happier for a few seconds. "Tell me what's wrong." I commanded gently.

She sighed and I turned the corner, I would be able to make it in time.

"...I saw Barret making out with another girl in his car..."

"Oh Tifa," I sighed, "It was just a crush and it's just high school, you shouldn't let these things bother you so much."

She sniffed again and I heard her blow her nose into a tissue. "Cloud, how are you so good at this when you've never had a girlfriend or even a crush?" She giggled and I stammered and blushed.

I was speechless for a second and then the phone was ripped out of my hand and I muttered a curse under my breath. "Shit." I muttered.

I whirled around quickly and there was Jenova looking at me with one eyebrow cocked and swear to God, there was a smirk on his face that I ached with all my heart to punch. He was flawless as always, his only flaw.

I had to struggle to keep the sneer off my face.

He held the phone up to his ear and spoke without taking his eyes off my face. "Mrs. Lockheart, I'm sorry but Mr. Strife can't come to the phone right now." He pulled the phone away from his ear and hung up the phone. I held out my hand for the phone, my cheeks burning red but he dropped it into his pants pocket instead.

My jaw dropped and I couldn't even respond with a snotty comment, I was speechless.

"Mr. Strife, seeing as how you can't follow simple rules, you'll have to get this phone back after school." He told me and I finally remembered to shut my mouth. "I'll see you in class Mr. Strife." He said and the bell rang.

He turned around and walked away and then the hallway was empty except for me staring, speechless at his retreating back. The sound of his expensive Italian shoes slapping the ground rhythmically echoed throughout the empty hallway and realizing I was late, I turned and ran down the hallway towards my English room.

"Fucking hell..." I grumbled under my breath and I reached for the doorknob. I opened the door and peeked in, realizing Mr. Zack wasn't in class yet. I thanked God for small miracles and rushed to my seat next to Aerith before God decided to change his mind.

She looked at me and was about to say something but noticing my look didn't say anything. She pulled out her cell phone and I knew she was texting me asking me what was up. I don't hide my feelings very well and Aerith could see plain as day that I was pissed beyond belief. I was so mad my hands were shaking and I couldn't sit still. Zack came in a few seconds later and started writing the general themes for Hamlet on the board but I barely paid attention. I watched Aerith send her text and didn't have the heart to tell her that I didn't have my phone and had no way of replying to her text.

Call me bitter but I didn't care that she sat there worried for me. I was too busy plotting for Jenova's destruction. I had no choice but to believe that he was out to get me. This was definitely more than him trying to make an example out of me. He had a personal vendetta and for the life of me I couldn't figure out why. I'd never had an enemy in my life, so why now?

I had no other choice but to believe that he hated me and truthfully, the feeling was mutual.

Chapter 6 - I'm not Okay (I Promise)

The bell rang. Immediately. Aerith jumped up and came over to my desk. During the forty-two minute period, my anger had mostly waned and was quietly simmering beneath my façade. ...To the normal person I would appear to be an easy-going guy.

Aerith stared at me with pity, searching my eyes for answers. "Is something wrong Cloud? You seemed very upset earlier..." She trailed off, waiting for my answer and I knew I had to tell her what happened, she would see through all my lies.

I grabbed my books and we headed off towards my locker so that I could grab my math notebook. I stared down at my feet as I spoke, avoiding eye contact. "...I was really worried about Tifa, so I called her during passing time and she didn't answer. She called back and I picked up, only I was walking in the hallway, trying to get to class on time." She nodded for me to keep going. "Well Tifa's not in school because she saw Barret making out with some girl in his car..."

Aerith nodded sympathetically. "Go ahead Cloud, I know that's not the only thing bothering you."

I sighed, like I said earlier--the girl can read me like an open book. "When I was talking to her, I got my phone taken away by Jenova. And I know we're not allowed to talk on the phone and shit during school but come on... it was passing time and I was hiding it really well. The only way he could have told I was talking on the phone was if he was watching me or something..." My anger was flaring up again and I was starting to get heated.

We reached my locker while Aerith searched for something to tell me. I opened the locker quickly and dumped my books in, pulling out my math notebook and calculator. I had a pencil stuffed in my back pocket already.

"You can't let this affect your grades or anything, it could hurt your chances for getting into college." She settled on saying. It was Aerith's way of saying 'I understand, but don't let it bother you, it's not worth it.' I don't know why my friends don't just say what they're thinking right out. Maybe it's because I always seem to know what they mean even if they don't say it out loud. It's probably one of the reasons I'm so laid back and easy-going with my friends.

I nodded because let's face it, she's right.

She changes the subject and I'm grateful, I don't want to have to pretend that Jenova's not bothering me. "Do you think Tifa will go to the party this weekend now that she's so upset?"

I nodded. "I think so, I told her to snap out of it and she seemed to take it to heart, or so I hope. She shouldn't let Barret bother her-- he probably didn't even know she liked him." I replied. Aerith nodded but she didn't look so sure.

I slammed the locker door harder than I probably should have, but Aerith didn't say anything and at that moment Yuffie and everyone else came up to us.

"Hey Cloudy, I got a message from Tifa asking if you were ok. So what's up, spill it cracker!" She yelled, already on the trail of some interesting info, Yuffie is and always will be a gossip.

I groaned, "Jenova took my phone away because he caught me talking to Tifa on it."

Reno whistled, "Harsh dude" and Yuffie nodded. Vincent's eyes narrowed and I could tell he was thinking about the other day when he'd caught Jenova looking at us. Vincent's suspicion was rubbing off on me and I wondered if there was any reason that Jenova seemed to have singled me out for this torture.

I waved my hand. "Oh well, what's past is past and all that. Tifa's the real problem, she saw Barret making out with some girl and now she's at home crying her eyes out." I really don't like being the center of attention and I don't like it when people worry about me—so I switched the conversation quickly.

"That piece of crap!" Yuffie yelled, referring to Barret.

"You know, I mean--I know the guy is a football player, but is he really that fucking stupid that he didn't notice her making goo-goo eyes at him everyday?" Reno grumbled.

"Boys are stupid." Yuffie said in a sing-song voice.

Reno hit her playfully on the head and stuck his tongue out at her.

Aerith giggled, "I'll see you guys later." She said as she left us at the door to our math class room. Yuffie and Reno went in but Vincent grabbed my arm and talked to me quietly outside the door.

"Be careful Cloud." He warned.

A simple piece of advice from a very complex guy. When Vincent tells you something, you don't ignore it. So as I stepped through the doorway, I resolved to follow that old adage of walking softly and carrying a big stick.

But that would be too simple. I decided that adolescent protest could be just as fun as peaceful revolution.

Let me tell you, if my eyes were laser beams, there would be two smoking holes right in the back of Jenova's expensive silk shirt and right through the spot where his heart should be.

Halfway through the class as I was contemplating interrupting Jenova's lecture to ask to go to the bathroom or something asinine like that, Jenova turned around.

"Mr. Strife, if you keep looking at me like that, I'm going to have to give you detention." He said.

I think I almost shit myself. I jumped up and was ready to say something back, my hands clenched into fist when I felt Vincent kick me in the back of the knees and causing my knees to buckle and I fell back into my seat, quiet but not defeated.

He cocked that frigging eyebrow at me again but I kept my face blank even though my nails were digging gouges into my flesh, I was clenching my fists so tight. I could feel hot tears ready to flood my eyes, but I'd be damned if I cried in front of that bastard.

The rest of the period past in a red haze of anger where I didn't hear a word Jenova said, I ignored the concerned looks my friends kept giving me and ignored everything else around me. I concentrated on keeping my face blank and stared unseeing at the board until the bell rang.

My friends closed their books and stood up quickly but I stood up much slower, knowing that Jenova was watching my every move.

"Come on Cloudy." Yuffie said quietly, putting a hand on my shoulder and I walked out of the classroom with them, still in a haze. I chanced a glance over my shoulder but Jenova had his back turned and his hand in his pocket.

I didn't pay attention to what my friends said around me but I caught snatches of their conversation.

"...single out Cloud?"

"Maybe he hates blondes?"

"...no..."

"He's cruel to a lot of people not just Cloud..."

"Sure he is."

"...he's more cruel to..."

"What did Cloud ever do to him?"

I bowed my head and hid behind my hair as we walked to lunch.

Chapter 7 - Number Five with a Bullet

I tried to put the past behind me, Hakuna Mattata, or so they say. I was still in a foul mood, but to the normal passer-by I just looked to be shy or maybe quietly determined.

Shockingly, Cid was in lunch for once, unlike myself, he must have been able to last one day without getting in trouble. Some people are just lucky like that.

After I'd gotten my pasta, I sat down at our table in between Barret and Vincent. All three of us were quiet but it was a companionable silence and none of us were bothered. Cid, Yuffie and Reno were having their normal shouting-match that was actually a conversation. For people who look so incredibly different, they are so alike it's sickening.

I mopped some of my past sauce up with my Italian bread and tried to avoid dropping any red globs on my white uniform shirt.

"Where's Tifa?" Barret suddenly asked and I looked up at him sharply. Maybe Aerith was right and Barret did like Tifa, but than why make out with another girl? Too many questions and too little answers.

I shrugged a shoulder and played with my pasta. "She's not feeling good, when she gets sick she _gets _sick, you know." I said it as if he implying that he should know.

"What's the matter?" He asked. I wanted to reply a broken heart but was saved by Cid who jumped into the conversation, I pretended I hadn't heard Barret's last question.

"Yo, Little Boy Blue, heard you had a run in with the law this morning. Do you ever stay out of trouble?" Cid asked, he had that smart ass grin on his face and I couldn't help but laugh at the way he phrased my sucky life.

"I guess so. I mean, I couldn't get away from that guy if I tried. Remember how I told you he was the assistant coach? Well I remembered this morning that he's also the guy that holds all those school records that I can't even dream about breaking. The man is like God!" I said and threw my hands up in the air.

Cid didn't reply, his attention was focused on a spot behind me and I swiveled around in my chair to get a better look at what had grabbed his attention.

Walking though the double doors of the cafeteria, appearing out of the shadows like an avenging angel, was my arch nemesis. Just seeing him made my blood boil and my lip twitch.

Cid whistled and shook his head. "He looks like one fucking cold bastard." I nodded in agreement. And then, behind Jenova was Zack.

I turned back around and kicked Aerith lightly under the table to get her attention. "Hey look who walked in." I said, smiling wickedly and jerking my head in the general direction of the door.

She turned and looked and flushed a few interesting shades of pink that I had never seen before.

Zack followed Jenova and was fussing with a folder, he laughed at something Jenova said and then hit him lightly in the arm with the folder, moving his other hand in our direction. Goody, he was coming over here.

He approached our table and ran a hand through his dark hair, his tie was askew and the top buttons of his collar were undone and I could see Aerith grow more embarrassed and excited with each step he took.

"Aerith, I graded your paper first. I was excited to see what you wrote about after we had that discussion in English. And you didn't fail to amaze me. Here, I thought you might like to see your paper now that I'm done." He handed Aerith the paper and she looked over it, reading the comments written in read on the top of the page and I could see the 'A+!' written at the top of her paper. She deserved it, I know first hand that she spent a lot of time on that paper. I had spent a lot of time on it too, but I was no Virginia Woolf.

"Thank you, Mr. Zack!" She said and she was flushed with happiness.

"Your welcome, Aerith." He responded without out bothering to correct her that she could just call him Zack. "And you Mr. Strife," he turned to face me. "I was pleasantly surprised when I started your essay, let me tell you, you're off to a fine start. Have you ever thought of majoring in English?" He asked me and I heard a few people chuckle at our table. English?

"Sorry Zack, but at this moment my future is still up in the air." I replied. I was one of those seniors who still had no idea where they were going or what they were even majoring in. I had no idea if I was going to even keep running in college. Literally, my whole life was up in the air the moment I graduated.

He nodded, obviously understanding. "Well, you should consider English, you're a fantastic writer." And with those parting words he was gone and I was left with yet another thing to ponder, my future.

"That man had a serious issue with jail bate." Cid said once Zack was out of hearing. Reno sputtered and spit out his Snapple onto the table and Yuffie squealed in disgust.

"What--- no—oh—my..." Aerith stumbled and stuttered in response. "He's just being nice and taking an interest in his students." Aerith said.

Cid smirked. "I thought so at first too, until I noticed the attention he gave Cloudy over here. As your friend Cloud, I feel it's my duty to tell you when older men are hitting on you."

Reno kept laughing, gasping for breath and I just rolled my eyes. "Trust me, we all know he only has eyes for out little rose, Aerith. He's just using me to get closer to his true love." I joked, which caused Aerith to blush and stutter some more. Luckily, Barret came to her rescue.

"Are any of you guys going to the party this weekend?" He asked. Everyone contemplated for a few minutes but the general consensus was yes. He thought for a second and then asked, "What about Tifa? Do you guys think she'd like to go?"

"Oh yes, yes! She wouldn't miss it for the world!" Yuffie exclaimed and put on a cheesy smile. Her eyes sparkled with mischief and I felt bad for Barret, who probably regretted asking his question in front of the gossip queen.

Vincent shuffled against me and I looked over at him, he was looking over his shoulder, staring hard at something. "What's the matter?" I asked.

He looked at me with his burning red eyes and shook his head. "Nothing." But I wasn't convinced, I glanced behind me and shivered when I saw Jenova staring at me. I swear, I could feel his icy glare chilling my spin. I shivered and the bell rang. I jumped up and dumped my garbage in the nearest trash can. Barret and I walked to gym talking about the party and the upcoming football came.

Nothing too heavy, I was testing the waters, I was watching him for any clue as to why he asked after Tifa. Maybe he was just being a good friend, or maybe he had a much more serious interest in her other than her well-being.

As we hit the volleyball to each other across the net, our conversations kept returning, inevitably, to Tifa. The way Barret talked about her had me convinced by the end of the period that Barret was a guy with a huge crush.

After gym, I didn't bother to change since I would be back here soon enough for practice anyway. I did my usual routine, getting ready to run. But first I had some where I had to go. I left my stuff in my gym locker and walked up the stairs and down the hallway to my math class.

When I got there, the door was open and I peeked my head in before knocking. Jenova was sitting there, grading papers intently. He looked up sharply at the sound of my knock and his expression grew serious when he saw me. He motioned with a careless wave of the hand for me to come in. Maybe something about the guy just rubs me wrong, or maybe I just get angry easily, but the carelessness of his action pissed me off.

I walked over to his desk and he continued grading papers for a few minutes before I coughed low in my throat to get his attention. He sighed and pushed his papers aside, looking up at me with serious eyes.

"Mr. Strife, seeing as how you can't seem to follow the rules of this school, you'll have to be punished." Punished, he said it like I was child who had been caught pulling some little girls hair or fighting in the school yard. "But since I don't really want to spend my Friday in detention with you, you'll be assigned a project due on Monday. It'll count as an extra test grade for you and will be graded harshly, so I suggest you get started." He reached over and pulled out a manila folder from a stack of papers and handed it to me.

I opened it and pulled out a stack of papers for a project that looked like it should take a whole semester to do. My jaw dropped and I looked up at Jenova with disbelief. There goes the party and there goes the rest of my whole fucking weekend. Detention would be a blessing compared to this.

End Part 2

Diana - Chapter 2 done. So the animosity between Sephiroth and Cloud is heating up and hopefully it's reached that point where it seems like Sephiroth is singling him out but still staying within the boundaries of teacher-dom. The seeds are being sown for their relationship too with the comments his friends are making. So it should be interesting to watch Cloud's feelings change.


	3. Part 3

Curse of Curves

By : Fearless_Dranzer

Part 3

Chapter 8 – Smells Like Teen Spirit

I looked down at my watch and sighed. There wasn't enough time for me to do my extra run, so I decided just to go to practice early. I trudged to practice with a heavy heart, thinking over my impending doom. The upcoming project felt like a death sentence hanging over my head—or maybe I was just over reacting a little bit, just a little bit. So sue me. As a high school student; it's my official job to be dramatic.

I jogged out to our meeting spot and expected to be the first one there, but I was shocked to see someone else there-Jenova. I swear, he must apparate or something. There's no other explanation. How he managed to get changed and get out here... it was blowing my mind. Maybe he had his running clothes on under his work clothes, you know? And he just rips off his slacks and button down and BAM! running clothes on underneath.

Luckily, a whole bunch of other guys came running over at the same time as me, so I blended in with them and ignored my math teacher. Within five minutes the entire team had shown up, minus one or two stragglers who always show up late.

"Alright gang! We're splitting up into groups today based on running ability!" Tseng called out, grabbing our attention. He clapped his hands together. "You guys know who you run near, so make five groups of about three or four. And let's hustle!"

I ended up with two other guys, the next two fastest guys on the team—on a good day, they were within two minutes of me. Jenova was with a different group. Small miracles; they're what keeps me going.

Somehow, I got through practice with barely a glimpse of the old jerk. My days were looking up.

After our warm-down, Tseng let us go in to the locker room to change and soon, I was one of the last people left in the locker room. I'd run hard today, probably due to the boiling hatred scourging through my veins. My muscles felt like jelly and I sat down on the wooden bench behind me with a sigh. I didn't feel like moving at a pace any slower than a snail's.

"Tough day man?"

"You know it, Barret. You?" I replied.

"I'll be feelin' it tomorrow, that's for sure..." He slumped down on the bench next to me and let out a sigh, "You going to the party?"

"Eh, probably not; I have to do this project for Jenova. The ass-wipe gave me detention, cancelled it and so now I have this project." I said.

"What the fuck? How does he get away with that? He can't just give you a project to do in place of detention..."

"Yeah he can..." I sighed. "If I don't do it, I get a demerit on my record and any guy with a demerit can't run in the meets. Tseng would kill me if I did that."

"That blows man." We sat there in silence for a few seconds and I took the opportunity to remove my sneakers, I kicked them off, they hit my locker and rolled to a stop next to my feet. I stared at my dirt and sweat-streaked socks with a bored look. I really needed clean ones but the desire move and put them on wasn't on my 'To Do' list.

"I tried calling Tifa today, to ask her if she was coming to the party, but she didn't pick up. You talk to her lately?" Barret finally asked and I knew that was why he'd come over in the first place. He'd sat around making tentative small talk until he could bring up what it was he really wanted to talk about.

"Nah, I tried calling her today but couldn't really get though, she sounded sick though. I was planning on stopping by her house after this though."

He nodded, "Good man, tell me what happens. I have to get back to football practice." He jumped off and hustled off to practice and I was left alone.

And I thought my coach was a slave driver. It wasn't rare for Barret to be doing double practice at least three times a week. When he slept was as much my guess as yours.

I pulled off my gross socks and pulled on a clean pair that I kept shoved in the back of my locker—even they smelled faintly like sweat. Nice. Then I yanked my sweat-dampened shirt over my head and stuffed it in my track bag to take home to wash. I was about to put on the shirt I wore to school when my phone rang. I dug around for in in my locker before coming up victorious. It was Reno.

"Dude, major favor pour favore." Reno sang out in a terrible spanish accent.

"What's up?" I replied, used to this greeting. Reno had probably forgotten something again, the kid was such a scatter brain.

"Math homework, need it please!"

"Since when do you actually do homework?" I asked.

"Since I've decided I don't want to end up on his bad side with you!" He retorted and that made me laugh.

"It was that ditto he handed out remember?"

"Eh.. I'll look around for it, you'll know if I can't find it. Thank you kind sir. I'll be off now!" I don't know what he's smoking either but it seems to be pretty damn strong stuff.

I hung up and tossed the phone into my bag and there was a noise.

I sat up; my ears would have been perked if I was a dog. There it was again, it was the sound of shoes on the tiled floor. Strange... I'd thought I was the only one still here. Uneasy, I shrugged my shoulder and tried to pull my shirt on when I felt a strange prickling sensation in the back of my neck.

I turned around and looked over my shoulder to see Jenova standing there, fully dressed in his work clothes. I looked at him for half a heart beat and he stared right back. He stood there a second longer and then walked away. I could hear the soft shuffle of his shoes on the floor as he made his exit and walked out the door. When he left, I let out a big whoosh of breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding.

I hurried through changing, throwing my clothes on with little regard for my aching muscles, just trying to get away from the feeling of Jenova's eyes on my half naked body. I slammed my locker shut with a jarring bang that scared me and ran out of that locker room, like a hell hound was hot on my feet.

I ran past a showcase and upon seeing my frightened reflection in the glass, I stopped running. It was ridiculous that some guy looking at me shirtless bothered me so much. Guys see other guys totally naked in the locker room and no one ever gives a fuck. What made this time so much more unsettling? Maybe it was the feeling that he wasn't really looking at me, but that he was looking _in to _me. It was like he knew what I was thinking and he could see every thought I've ever had. He was an omnipotent and omniscient being.

I slowed my breathing and with it, my heart stopped pounding in my chest and I was able to walk to my car without dying of a heart attack. Small miracles.

Before walking back to my dorm though, I decided to make as stop at Tifa's house—just to see how she was doing. It was only a slight detour on my way dorm. Tifa lived off campus at her parent's house, whereas I lived in a community dorm for the kids at Shinra High who live too far away to commute each day.

I had left my car parked in the school parking lot a few days ago, instead of in front of my dorm, since there had been no parking spots in front of my building. The school was only a five minute walk from my dorm. I pulled out my keys and opened the car door. I sat down and it was like I was deflated, I slumped over the steering wheel and suddenly felt very tired, the adrenaline rush that had come from being scared had worn off and I was left tired and weary.

It was five minutes before I could pick myself up and turn the ignition on.

I walked up the front steps and knocked, I was enthusiastically greeted by Tifa's family dog, Iffie, who was a mutt, and by Tifa's mother. We chatted for a few minutes before she sent me upstairs with a wave of her hand. We'd been friends forever, since early childhood, and her parents and mine had quickly come to realize there were no romantic feelings between us and never would be. We were too much like brother and sister. We'd lived next door in our early childhood until my parent's moved away.

I knocked on the door and opened it when I heard her call out. She was sitting in bed in her pajamas, her long hair braided and thrown over one shoulder. Her red, puffy eyes showed she'd been crying but I could tell she'd pretty much gotten over it already. Tifa was a trooper or at least was able to put on the facade of one.

She looked up at me and smiled. "Hey!" She called out as a greeting.

"Hey Tifa, just came by to check up on you..." I said trailing off. "I have something to tell you."

"Ohhh!" She jumped up out of bed and grabbed me by the shoulders shaking me. "Tell me! Tell me, you gossip monger!" She was excited, like every girl I'd had the pleasure to come across, she loved gossip. I've yet to meet a girl who doesn't.

"You have to come to school tomorrow and come to the party."

"Oh, well I guess if you put it that way master..." she replied, glaring at me.

"Well a certain somebody was asking about you and wondering if you were coming..." I trailed off, piquing her interest.

"A certain somebody...?" she repeated, examining my face for any sign as to who this 'somebody' was.

I smiled and she squealed, "Tell me!"

"Barret." I replied. Her smile dropped and then rose and then dropped again, only to timidly come back the second time and remain there.

"I'm going!" she declared. "I don't know what the hell is going on, but I'll definitely be there!" She declared. "Oh... but what should I wear? What are you wearing Cloud?"

My smile turned into a grimace. "I'm not going." I replied.

Chapter 9 – Man Overboard

I slammed my locker door shut and turned around, coming face to face with Yuffie. She had an overdramatic frown on her face; her lower lip jutting out as he pouted.

"Cloudyyyyyy." She whined at me. "I can't believe you're not going to the party this weekend! That mean old Mr. Jenova! How could he take my Cloud away from me!" She wailed.

Bad news travels fast among my friends. I wouldn't be surprised if the entire school knew by now. Tifa and Yuffie's cell phone's were connected to the majority of Shinra High's student's cell phones. It's a very small world when you're a high school student in the 21st century and Tifa and Yuffie were queens of the texting grape vine.

Tifa grabbed Yuffie around the shoulders and pulled her into a hug, crushing Yuffie against her chest. "Why is God so unfair to us! And by God I mean Mr. Jenova?"

They continued their lamenting wails, gaining quite a few looks from students passing by.

Reno ran past me as the two-minute bell rang and he smacked me in the arm with a book. "Yo, man! Heard about the party. Bummer!" He continued running until he turned into a flaming-haired speck in the distance.

To be honest I wasn't quite sure why everyone was making such a big deal out of it. I wasn't a big party animal; I barely even went to parties! I don't drink and I can't really stay out late on the weekends because of early morning practice. It was a tough life, being a jock.

"Oops! Gotta go too!" Yuffie sprinted off after Reno and then just Tifa and I were left.

We walked to class in a blanket of my silence and Tifa babbling, mooning over Barret. During first period, Tifa made me recount my interaction with Barret twice. I made sure to exaggerate some tiny bits so that Tifa would focus on Barret and not on my inability to go to the party. That worked, at least until second period when Tifa turned her focus onto me.

"I can't believe you can't go!" She hissed at me while the teacher was writing on the board. "It's ridiculous!"

I shrugged my shoulder at her as I copied what the teacher was writing. "You can't not go! Who'll be my wingman?"

"I'm sure Yuffie would be glad to help..." I replied.

"Yeah but I need a wing_man_, not a wing-_woman_."

"Miss Lockheart! I'm not just writing on the board for my own good. Get copying!" The teacher called out to us. I was saved, but only for now.

Unfortunately, without Tifa to distract me, I was left alone with my own thoughts. I brooded through the rest of second period. I tried to pick apart what I might have originally done to piss Jenova off in the first place. It had to be like Reno said, he'd used me to set an example for other students. He didn't want them to think he was soft because he was young; so he picked out a victim to make an example of. Sadly, it seemed like I was that victim.

The more I thought about it the more it made sense: he was only a complete ass to me in class, he was helping to coach the cross country team and he hadn't done anything to me, he hadn't gone out of his way to even look at me. We barely talked. He didn't hate me; if he did, he would try to go after me in cross country. But he didn't. So maybe I was just the example.

By third period of was certain of this. Third period was Wutai Studies with Rude and time spent with Rude was never strenuous. He was slumped over in his chair by the time I arrived, notebook and pen out already on his desk already. Rude was a hard worker in everything he did, which is why he was one of the top in our class.

"Heard about your new project." Rude joked, nothing was ever serious with him, he was only ever jocular.

"Word travels fast." I replied. "Yuffie and Tifa are texting queens."

"No, you're forgetting the biggest texting queen of them all—Reno." Rude commented. I laughed at that, like I said, it was always calm with Rude.

We continued talking and our topics ranged from everything from muzzling Reno to tying down Barret so Tifa could finally have her way with him. It seemed to be obvious to the two of us that Barret and Tifa liked each other. As for Barret and Tifa—they were a little blind to their own situation as far as we were concerned.

"Tifa's perfect for him. She a tough girl and he needs a girl that he couldn't break, you know what I mean?" I grunted in affirmation and he continued talking about other things while my mind drifted away. Wutai Studies was kind of a joke of a class but we needed it in order to graduate. We were all pretty much given free reign during class so long as we did the homework assignments.

The one thing Rude never talked about though was Jenova and for that I was glad, I needed to get him out of my head for now. I'd already wasted too much time thinking about him-time I could spend thinking about other...much more important stuff... like running. Yes, running.

I spent the rest of the period talking with Rude about everything and intermittently daydreaming about running and my next race. Occasionally, I did some classwork. But dreaming of running could occupy me for hours—it was almost as good as running the actual race. Good races, bad races, they were all the same to me. The pain I experienced in a race was the same as the pain in any other race I'd ever run; the only thing that ever changed was the outcome. Sometimes I was the winner, sometimes I wasn't. Even if I didn't win I liked to consider it a success that I made it through another grueling race and would live to run again. A highly optimistic attitude that a lot of runners needed to adopt in order to stay runners.

Fourth period was Social Studies with Aerith and I settled into my desk with a happy sigh. There was a television in the front of the classroom and a stranger at the teacher's desk. A substitute teacher. Some other students came in after me and let out cheers when they saw the television and the sub; the sub had the good grace to roll her eyes.

Aerith giggled at the small exchange, something light and sweet like the tinkling of broken glass or of wind chimes. Aerith was always delicate; she was something that could be broken and that thought made me shiver. I shook off my unease as the sub addressed the class.

"Settle down everyone; I know substitute teachers are exciting, but your teacher left a syllabus for today and you need to watch a movie, fill out a few dittos and hand them in at the end of class." She turned around to write this on the board and wrote the name of the dittos on the board. "There will be no talking!" She said as the class started to chatter amongst themselves, she even wrote that on the board.

There were some groans and she turned back around and threw up her hands in the air. "Look, I don't make the rules guys—I just enforce them." She returned to the desk and picked up the dittos and started to hand them out to students to distribute amongst the class. When she was done doing that, she turned to the television and popped in the DVD. It was an episode of some History Channel series that was only vaguely interesting.

I looked down at my dittos and was relieved to realize that I'd already read the chapter these questions were from. Unlike most of the class, I kept up with the assigned textbook reading because I couldn't afford to not succeed in class. I was able to quickly answer the questions and I saw Aerith blazing through her questions as well. As hard as I worked for my grades, she worked twice as hard. Aerith was a determined girl and she wanted to make something of herself.

Just as I was finishing up the last ditto, my phone buzzed. I looked up at the sub but she was hidden behind a cheesy romance novella. She wouldn't be looking up any time soon. I pulled out my cellphone and saw a new text from Aerith.

_If you don't think you can go to the party and get your project done, you shouldn't go to the party..._

It was just like Aerith, she was trying to defend me from Tifa and Yuffie's obsessive desire to have me at that party. Aerith held schoolwork a bit higher than any of my other friends and even higher than myself. She understood my uncontrollable need to get this project done well and to complete the rest of my homework too. The only way I could actually kept up with a lot of the material was to spend almost all my free time studying. The project was already straining the delicate schedule I kept to obsessively; going to the party on top of that wouldn't be doing me any good. In fact, I might have a break down right this minute from the shear amount of work hanging over my head.

Aerith was definitely right, I couldn't go to the party—it would upset my weekend schedule too much and I couldn't afford to do a shitty job on Jenova's project. If he wanted, he could go to the principal over my not doing this 'detention assignment' well and get me suspended from all school activities—cross country team included. There would be nothing that Tseng could do about it and Tseng would probably kill me for it.

But Tifa could be relentless sometimes and having Yuffie as her evil assistant frightened me more than a guy my age should be frightened of two girls.

I texted Aerith back.

_Maybe there's a way I can balance all of them. Tifa really wants me to go._

With that, I resigned myself to finishing as much of this project before the party as I possibly could. My safety from Tifa depended on it. Besides, I needed a night off, especially because Jenova had been driving me crazy lately. High school was stressful enough while participating in a sport but dealing with a crazy math teacher had been wearing me down lately.

Fifth period was English with Tifa. She spent the next forty minutes glaring at me and sending me threatening hand gestures when the teachers back was turned. I hadn't yet told her that I'd decided to go to the party but I was thankful I had decided the way Tifa wanted me to or I'd be more afraid of her strangling hand motions.

I glanced over at her and she saw me looking and smacked her fist into her open palm. I couldn't help myself, I laughed silently at her and this seemed to infuriate her more. But she caught the easy smile on my face and decided that she would be better off just pretending to be hurt by my cruelty.

She could be so ridiculous sometimes and I'd probably say that about every girl my age, except Aerith. Aerith seems to be the only one with her head screwed on straight. Which is why I've come to the conclusion that either Aerith is a really rare breed of girl or that most girls in high school are sociopaths.

When the bell rang to signal the end of fifth period, Tifa gave me a tongue lashing. It was just playful teasing though and I didn't bother to pay it too much attention. Sometimes, Tifa just likes to talk for the sake of talking—girls can be like that sometimes.

We both joined in the mass exodus from the classroom to the hallway and were quickly joined by Aerith as she left her own classroom.

"Seriously Cloud! If you don't go, who is gonna protect me from drunken jerks?" Tifa said with her hands on her hips and a toss of her long dark hair. Please, Tifa could protect herself much better than I ever could.

Aerith had a soft smile on her face as she spoke. "Oh Tifa, you shouldn't torture him so much."

Tifa was about to reply but suddenly Reno came up next to me and started complaining about the amount of homework he'd received. "It's ridiculous! How can these teachers expect me to sit inside and do schoolwork on an afternoon as beautiful as this?"

Aerith and Tifa were ignoring Reno and continuing on in conversation in low whispers that I couldn't pick up. Reno saw me glancing over at them and he raised an eyebrow. "It always worries me when I see girls whispering so seriously." He shook his head and I had to agree with him.

"Somehow, I'm more frightened by their whispering than I am about Jenova." I replied.

"They're probably whispering about Jenova." Reno replied sagely. "Oh, Mr. Jenova wrap your manly-man arms around me!" He imitated in a high-pitched voice. Tifa broke away from the whispers long enough to shoot him the bird. Reno just let out a cackling laugh in response. I wonder if he knew how evil it made him sound—probably.

The warning bell rang in the hallway, signaling two minutes left to get to class. Aerith dashed off down the hall with a wave and Reno, Tifa, and I made our way into our classroom and settled down next to Yuffie and Vincent. Yuffie waved and Vincent nodded at me when I looked over at him. The bell rang and I took a deep breath to settle my nerves; it was ridiculous that I was this worried about class. But it felt like every time I stepped foot into this evil math class room, I wanted to slit my wrist a little bit more.

Alright, that was a little extreme and a little bit emo. Correction—really emo. I shook my head and stared ahead to the front of the room, where Jenova was already writing on the chalkboard. There was silence except for the scraping of chalk; it didn't even sound like anyone was breathing. It was like no one else was in that room. It felt like I was in an empty room, completely alone. The sensation you get from being near living people didn't seem to exist in Jenovas classroom. Frankly, I wasn't surprised. The man had that kind of effect.

Today we worked on finding intercepts on graphs and strangely enough, I wasn't singled out by Jenova once. I wasn't even picked when I raised my hand. Somehow this made me more annoyed than if he'd been torturing me like usual. Maybe annoyed isn't the right word, maybe scared would work better. It felt like he was planning something and I really didn't want to find out. Who knows? He might just be saving all his cruelty for cross country practice. It would be just like him to ruin my favorite time of the day.

I think even Reno must of felt the strange oppression going on today because he didn't try joking around, usually he'd lean forward and whisper something into Yuffie's ear every so often. But not today. Scared? No, now I'm pretty much terrified of what Jenova must be planning. There's no way he's decided to just start ignoring me.

Suddenly the bell rang and I jerked my head up in surprise. Everyone was getting their stuff together to leave when suddenly Jenova called out over the din, "Mr. Strife, I'd like to see you before you leave."

I'd say my heart sank, but I was completely expecting something like this. As my friends filed out of the classroom they sent me meaningful glances but I couldn't read a single one. Reno slapped me lightly on the back as he walked past and then Jenova and I were alone.

He motioned for me to come up to his desk and it felt like every step I took was leading me deeper and deeper into my doom. Fuck my life.

Jenova sat behind his desk like a king on his throne, surveying his land. It was all I could do to keep the sneer off my face. He shuffled some papers in place and rearranged another pile just to show me that he was the one who held the power in this classroom. I hated power shows. I had to deal with them all the time in cross country, especially in my earlier years when the upper class-men treated me like shit for infiltrating their varsity team.

Finally, he looked up at me as if he forgot I was there. He opened a draw in his desk and pulled out a manilla folder and handed it to me. "This is your project. Now hopefully you'll be able to behave yourself so that you won't get your toys taken away anymore." He smirked at me and dismissed me with a wave of his hand. He went back to going through papers and I can tell by his superior-than-thou attitude that if I say anything snide to him he'll make damn sure I'm kicked off the team. I couldn't risk that, so I kept quite and held my tongue. My mouth ached with the desire to rip him a new one.

Someone needed to rip that man down a few pegs but until I graduate, my lips are sealed. Then I'll give that son of a bitch a piece of my mind. But I can wait and I can bide my time.

As I left I slammed the door shut behind me, loud enough to show that I did it on purpose. I felt just a little bit better which is good because for now, that's all I can do.

Chapter 10 – Girl's not Grey

I slammed my tray down on the lunch table and threw the manilla folder down after it. Tifa lifted one eye brow and looked at me. Aerith brushed some pudding off her arm, which must have been from me upsetting the table.

"Sorry." I say sheepishly and she smiled back at me. I can tell they're all curious about what happened back there in math class but I don't really have the heart to explain it.

They go back to eating and talking amongst themselves but I got a few worried glances my way. I ignored them and started flipping through the folder with one hand as I shoveled fries into my mouth with the other. The further into the folder I got, the more my heart sank lower into my chest. By the time I was done, my heart was squished somewhere in my large intestines.

The project in the folder was a semester-long project. In fact, it was last year's final project. To say my jaw dropped might not be literal enough. There was no way I'd ever be able to get this done. And if for some strange reason I did finish the project, there'd be no way it'd be done well.

"That bad, huh?" Tifa asked me. It's like the girl is psychic or something.

"Worse." I reply.

"But you're still going to the party right?" She pressed on.

Aerith interceded. "He might not be able to now. That project is huge isn't it?"

I nodded and rubbed my eyes with my fists. Between practice and this project, I won't be going to the party. There is just no way.

Aerith reached across the table and patted me on the arm. "I can help you if you'd like. It's no big deal really." Aerith is a genius and is already in too many high level ranking classes to count. I can't possibly force more work onto her.

"Yeah! I can help too!" Tifa volunteered. I winced. The last thing anyone ever wants is for Tifa to help them with their math homework. She's terrible at math. It's her kryptonite.

"What are you thinking?" Aerith asked me.

"How much I wish I had the ability to kill someone with my thoughts."

Tifa nodded sagely.

"What I don't get," Reno budded in, "is why you are so persistent about him going to this party, Tifa. Is there something going on between the two of you that we don't know about?" He cocked an eyebrow at her.

"Ugh!" Tifa yells and punched him hard enough in the shoulder that he almost fell backwards off his seat.

I glanced down at the end of the table and realized Barrett was sitting with us, which isn't right. He should be in class. Barrett laughs at Tifa berating Reno and she turned her attention on to him.

She pointed a menacing finger. "And you Mister! I wouldn't be too happy, especially when I tell Mr. Jenova that you're skipping class."

Barrett's smile grew larger and he put a heavy hand over his heart. "Tifa, you're so cruel to me."

This caused Tifa to blush bright red and avert her eyes. And for a second my mood lightened and I joined in the laughter.

Reno stood up and said his good-byes; his spot was almost immediately taken by Cid. He didnt have a tray, just a brown paper bag and he pulled a sandwich out of it. Cid is a picky eater so he just resorts to making his own food. He had a cigarette tucked behind his left ear and a scowl on his face, which for him is nothing new.

"So blonde—how's math class with sunshine over there?" Cid asked after a mouthful of sandwich.

"He gave me a project that I'll be doing until hell freezes over." I replied shoveling rice into my mouth.

"See here's what I recommend," Cid said pointing his sandwich at me, "you get some nerd to do it all for you. I can introduce you to some guys I know who can help you."

Aerith had a horrified look on her face but Barrett roared with laughter. "No thanks Cid. It seems a little too 'hands on' for me I guess."

Yuffie spook up for the first time all lunch. She'd been trying to do a homework ditto before the next period, when it was due. "I mean, it won't be too hard for you to just come for an hour or something right? I mean, that way you'd get to hang with us for a while and still have enough time to do work. An hour's not really going to make too much difference in the long run, right?"

I nodded my head slowly. "I guess you're right. An hour really isn't going to make any difference."

Tifa clapped her hands together and cheered. My damp mood hovered over the rest of the lunch period no matter how light hearted our table seemed on the surface. I felt bad being such a dark cloud of gloom but I just couldn't stop myself from slipping into silence at random parts of conversation as I got lost in my own thoughts.

When the bell rang I was happy to escape to gym, it's easy to be happy in a class like gym when you're athletic. Without even realizing it my mood lightened considerably as we played volleyball in gym. Some people weren't so good at it, but there were enough actual volleyball players on both teams that the game got pretty heated. I got lost in the excitement of the game and got to touch the ball a few times and made a few good saves.

After gym, I put my running gear on but I didn't go out for my extra run, instead I settled into the school library and took out a few books that would help me with my math project. It's half research paper-half commentary and I needed a few books for reference.

Missing my extra run brought my mood down a bit, especially, when I picked a seat by the 6 foot tall windows in the library and spent a good amount of time looking out the window. It was beautiful outside, the perfect weather for cross country. It was why I liked the season so much. Only a few of the leaves had started to turn and die so there still seemed to be the last bit of summer clinging to the trees.

The air in the library smelled old and stale like all the knowledge in all the books had gone bad over the years. I knew what the air outside smelled like though. It smelled like summer dying—well that smell was probably just the leaves dying or something. I glanced at the clock and out the window before looking down at the paper in front of me. I got up and started looking through the bookcases for some books for my project. I quickly picked out three that looked like they were going to be very helpful to my cause and brought them over to a librarian to check out. She made some small talk with me—asked me how my season was going—she recognized me from the school newspaper by my name. Surprisingly, this kind of stuff happened to me often, teachers and school employees would ask me about my season, once they realized my name was Cloud. I mean, Shinra High is a very big school but I'm the only Cloud and... I guess I have gotten a reputation from running.

I checked the clock on the wall again and cursed under my breath, earning a glare from a girl nearby with coke-bottle glasses and a giant astrophysics textbook. I gathered up my things and made a quick pit stop on my way out to practice to drop my research books off in my locker. With a sigh, I hike up my track bag that had only the bare essentials in it; a water bottle, an ace bandage, a reusable ice pack and a half-empty tube of Icy Hot.

I pushed open the door to the outside and jogged over to my team's meeting spot and high-five some of the other guys. They're joking around and just fooling around with my coach. It was like I'd been brought back to a time before Jenova. I loved it.

A quick glance around and I realized, Jenova's not even here. I guess that explained the relaxed and light atmosphere.

Chapter 11 – Dance Hall Drug

I downed the rest of my luke-warm coffee in one gulp and sighed heavily into the textbook I was flipping through. This one extensively explored Newton's Method and beyond that I'm not quite sure what else it was saying. I probably should have flipped through the book and checked to see if I could even understand it before I checked it out of the library. Oh well, common sense never was my strong suite.

I closed the book and pushed it away from myself. I allowed for a few seconds of rest before I pick up the next book and started trying to decipher it. The sun had long since set and the study lounge was lit with bright yellow incandescent light, that hurt my eyes when I stared directly at the bulbs. I tipped my chair back so that I was balancing only on the back two legs, there was no one else in here with me and I'm not surprised. No one studies on a Friday. I checked my watch and sighed when I realized that it's already 10:45.

I wandered back to my door, dragging all my books behind me. My room mate had left a few hours ago to go home to celebrate his sister's birthday, so I was alone for the weekend. I threw the books down on the bed and seriously contemplated throwing myself down too but I knew I wouldn't get up if I did. Instead I started digging through my drawers, pulled out a pair of dark jeans and threw them on. Luckily, I had showered right after practice. I looked for a shirt but after five minutes I gave up, realizing that almost all my clothes were dirty and in my hamper. In fact, most of my clothes were running clothes, I owned very few t-shirts that don't somehow relate back to track. I settled on some grey shirt Tifa gave me for my birthday a few years ago. It was ridiculously soft for a t-shirt and it was probably really expensive, but I had never really had the chance to wear it before. I grabbed a light sweat shirt and tossed it over my shoulder before running out the door, only to realize I'd forgotten my phone and had to go back.

I cursed myself and dug into my back pocket for my ID card that would let me back into our room. The block of dorms I lived in was relatively new compared to most dorms so instead of needed a code to get into my room, I only need to swipe my ID card. It's supposed to cut down on people being able to break in and steal things. I swipe back into my room and grab my phone where I had chucked it on the bed. And take a quick glance around to make sure I didn't forget anything else before I ran out the door for a second time.

I jogged down the hallway and down the steps to the lobby of my dorm. I lived on the top floor which was pain in the ass on Move In Day but it meant no people being loud assholes above me. I waved to one of the guards on duty at the security desk and he nodded back. And then I was out, I take off at a brisk pace heading down towards the houses just outside of campus. Some groups at school had their own houses, like sorority houses at colleges. Football had two houses and so did pretty much every sport except track and cross-country. You had to be an upperclassmen to even be allowed to dorm off campus and as a result of that there was a lot of partying going on in the houses. Football tended to throw a lot of parties but it was the Rugby House that threw the best parties—or so I'd heard. I don't really get out much.

Once I got off campus, the Football House was just a block further down. Outside the house I could hear the thumping of loud music coming from inside. When someone opens the door all the pent up noise was released and I felt like I could see the noise streaming out the door. I slipped inside, past two girls giggling on the porch who are on the dance team and stepped into the hallway of the house. There were people packed into the house like sardines; I was already starting to feel claustrophobic. I took out my phone and sent Tifa a quick text telling her 'I was here' and I decided to explore a little, hoping I could find her and the rest of my friends in this clusterfuck of people.

There was barely any room for all the people stuffed into the house and it felt like more were arriving by the minute—I'm not really a fan of big parties like this, it always worries me that the cops are going to come to break it up and that Coach Tseng was going to find out. God help me if that ever happened. I felt kind of jumpy, drunk people always have me on edge. I'm always terrified that drunk people are going to vomit on me or something equally gross.

I slid past a group of girls, heading towards what I hoped was the kitchen and I gasped as I felt someone grope me. I whirled around but everyone was facing away, minding their own business. My imagination? I hope not.

Somehow, I make it to the back of the house and decided that what I needed was cold air. It felt like a hundred degrees in here and I think I might actually have be sweating just from standing here and doing nothing. I yanked the sliding glass door open and step outside, taking a deep breath of clean cold air.

"Cloud!" Someone called my name and I realized I was not alone out here. Yuffie and Reno were dancing to an iHome they had scrounged up; honestly, they'd probably stolen it right off of some football player's desk. It was blasting some nameless song with a unremarkable dance beat and they were gyrating and grinding on each other. I wanted to look away; it felt like I was interrupting. There was a half-empty bottle of Smirnoff next to them on the table and a shot glass. I could tell they'd been at this for a while and would probably still be partying long after I fell asleep.

I called out to them, "Where is everyone?"

"Oh, we're not good enough for you?" Yuffie pouted.

Reno responded to me, "I'm not sure... we lost track of everyone a while ago. It got pretty boring so I stole this bottle out of some chicks purse and Yuffie and I started having fun!" Yuffie screeched as Reno spun her around, he let go of her and she stepped back, trying to keep her balance. Reno laughed and stepped back towards her and steadied her.

I nodded and talked to them a few minutes longer, they weren't going to be much help though. It appeared that they'd been left to their own devices for a long time.

"Waiiiitttt! Vincent and Cid! They were here a few minutes ago!" Yuffie called out as I was about to wrap up this conversation. "They left to get some more soda for chasers!"

Reno laughed at this. "I kept telling them we didn't needed it but they wouldn't have any of it!" He slurred at me. "Vodka tastes just fine without any chasers!" He declared and leaned in to pick up the bottle on the table and bring it to his mouth, before it could get there Yuffie snatched it away.

"Hey, this is for everyone! You can't put your mouth on it!"

"So you don't happen to remember where Tifa or Aerith are do you?" I asked, it seemed like they were pretty drunk, so I wasn't expecting too much.

Yuffie knit her eyebrows together in concentration. "Tifa wandered off... Tifa said she was going for a walk!" Yuffie shouted out triumphantly.

"A walk?" I asked. I cast a dubiously glance towards where Yuffie had gestured. The football house had a large stretch of woods behind it that belonged to a park. It seemed a little odd that Tifa would venture off in the woods, alone, at this time of night. It wasn't the greatest of neighborhoods and at night the park turned over to the people who lived less than holy lives. Don't get me wrong, Tifa's touch as nails. She could knock out anyone that looked at her funny but Tifa wasn't the kind to put herself into a situation like that.

I quickly said my goodbyes and took the steps off the deck two at a time. I didn't have to walk far when I heard slight sniffling coming from my left. I turned and stared into the darkness where the sniffling was coming from. "Tifa?" I called out.

The sniffling quieted and I heard her call my name out softly, "Cloud?"

I took my phone out of my pocket and used its meager light to guide myself to Tifa. She was seated behind a big old oak tree thats leaves were still a dark green. She was huddled up with her knees to her chest and her long black hair falling into her face. I could tell she'd taken a long time arranging it for the party tonight, since it looked like it was in a pretty intricate design, the fact that she was letting it fall into her face like that, told me there was a problem.

See, I've gotten to the point in my life when I realize when women, especially women who I am close to, are having men trouble. Red flags were waving in my mind and I felt like there was a bright red fluorescent arrow point to Tifa with the word 'problem' written under it.

End Chapter 3

Author's note – Sorry this is so long in coming. I've been crazy busy with school and everything. College life it way tougher than high school, that's for sure. Just remember—reviews sustain me. So please review away! I appreciate every single one even if it's a flame.

By the way, I forgot the POV, I was writing in for the story so I changed it. If there are any tense problems that's why! And please tell me if there are any inconsistencies! It's been so long since I last wrote this story!


	4. Part 4

Curse of Curves

By: Fearless_Dranzer

Part 4

Chapter 11 – Dance Hall Drug Part 2

"Tifa!" I ran up and crouched down next to her. She was clutching a bottle of Budweiser to her chest and by the smell of her I could tell this wasn't her first beer. "Tifa, what's wrong?" I asked.

She ignored me and just took a long drag of her beer, like it could solve all of her problems. I moved my foot and it banging into something. I looked down and realized I had kicked two empty beer bottles that were on the ground. I had a feeling Tifa had left them there.

"Tifa?" I tried once more, tentatively touching her shoulder.

She rolled her bloodshot eyes over to me and I could see fat tears tracing their way down Tifa's cheeks, smudging her eyeliner. "Oh Cloud! I feel so stupid!" She finally said.

"It's going to be alright, just tell me what's the matter." Feelings of alarm rose in my chest.

"I walked in on Barret and saw him with some other girl. You know that girl with the huge ass who hangs off guys? It had to be her." Tifa said bitterly. "Some freshman asked me to go upstairs and get him something. He was too afraid to go up by himself so he begged me to go. I'm so stupid! When I came back down that freshman and his friends were laughing at me. I'd been totally set up..."

"What do you mean, you walked in on them?" I asked.

"Well, Cloud, she had her top off and was on top of him! I walked in on them hooking up!"

"Oh...harsh. I'm sorry Tifa, but it will all be OK—it was probably just a mistake or something. I'm sure there are plenty of other guys here who'd like to have you in a position like that." I said trying to be reassuring and not sure if it was working.

She shrugged her shoulders. "Guys only see my breasts, they don't really see me." She said with a sob as her words slurred together. "I figured I was lucky to have huge tits but I guess not! How ridiculous! I can't even get the one guy I want. I really am pathetic. But I'll always have you right?" She grabbed me quickly and hugged me, dumping beer down the front of my shirt. I made a face and pulled the now empty bottle from her hand. Her body sagged against me and I was overwhelmed by the smell of beer. Tifa was _wasted_.

"I'll always have you Cloud! We can be single together!" She said with a giggle. "We'll be two single losers for the rest of our lives!"

"Ah jeez. Tifa, it's time to go home. It's really late and you should get some sleep." I said, trying to convince her that she needed to leave. If there was one thing I hated, it was trying to convince a drunk to go to bed. Depending on the drunk, it could be really difficult or really simple.

Tonight, with Tifa crying, it was easy to convince her to leave. I dragged her to her feet and she sagged against me, a hundred and twenty-five pounds of dead weight.

"Hey, Tifa! I can't do this if you don't help!" I said, jostling her a little so that she would pay attention to me. She made a noise of acknowledgement and stopped leaning so heavily on me. She stumbled along after me on sky-high pumps that put her at my eye level. It took us a while to get back to the deck even though it was barely twenty feet away. I sat her down on the stairs and she moaned, cradling her head. I quickly sent Yuffie a text telling her what happened. She was drunk as well but usually, she was the most respectable and classy drunk out of my friends. I could count on her to at least relay the message to the others.

You see, my friends are all different kinds of drunks. There's Yuffie who I have some difficulty telling when she's actually been drinking, Reno who turns into a major man-whore when drunk and than, there's the type like Tifa who is, right now, a sad drunk. Usually Tifa's a happy-go-lucky drunk who just wants to have a good time. She is usually a lot of fun to hang out with at parties.

It was going to be a long walk back to my dorm—her own place was too far away to walk to with her in this shape. I figured she could just spend the night on my bed and I would sleep on the floor. My roommate wouldn't mind. We didn't bother walking through the house, I was afraid someone would knock the both of us over and we get trampled so we just walked around the side of the house. There were two girls crouching by a bush, one holding the other's hair as she vomited. I turned my head away in disgust but the noises of her bringing up her stomach contents made my skin crawl. Tifa moaned and mumbled something about them finding a bathroom.

We eventually got down the block and could no longer hear the music leaking out from the party. In fact, I was kind of shocked that the party hadn't gotten busted already with how loud the music was. It had almost been loud enough to make my eardrums bleed. We had made it half way back to my dorm when Tifa started complaining that her feet hurt.

"Well, Tifa, of course they're going to hurt—you're wearing six inch heels! We're almost there, though!" I tried to prompt her so that she would keep walking but she stopped and kicked her pumps off. I could see blisters already forming on her toes.

"Woah, you can't walk on the street barefoot; there's broken glass everywhere!" I bent over and picked up her pumps, they were chunky and heavier than I expected. I had no idea how she could walk in those thing—they were sky-high!

"Carry me, Cloud," she pouted. I sighed and bent down so that she could get on my back. I was going to regret this in the morning. She had her arms hooked around my neck when a voice stopped her.

"Mr. Strife, you do know that it is poor manners to take advantage of a defenseless woman." A cold voice called out.

I froze. I knew that cold voice and it made the hairs on my neck raise. I spun around quickly, knocking Tifa off me. She stumbled and used a nearby pole to right herself.

"Uh, Mr. Jenova! I was... I was just... helping. She's... well, she's..." I trailed off stupidly, afraid that if I told him how drunk Tifa was, we'd get in trouble. "I'm just taking her home." I settled on saying. I grabbed Tifa's hand and gave it a slight tug to get her to start walking again. She was confused as to what was happening and end up stumbling and I barely managed to catch her. I turned around to look at her and realized the only reason I had actually caught her was because Jenova was holding up most of Tifa's weight with one hand. He raised a perfect eyebrow at me.

"Mr. Strife, I think it would be best if I drive Ms. Lockheart _home_. My car is close by."

I tried to argue but the look on his face told me this matter was decided. We pretty much carried Tifa back since she was crying too hard to pay attention to where she was going. She wasn't saying anything she was just crying in huge, heart-wracking sobs. I got her into the back seat and buckled her in, handing her the pumps.

I sat down on the other side of the backseat and grabbed Tifa's hand. She leaned against me, crying into my shirt that was still wet with beer. I directed him to Tifa's house since I didn't think he'd approve of me taking Tifa back to my room. In fact, I was pretty sure he knew I had been trying to take her there since he'd emphasized driving Tifa home.

I was too scared to do anything but pat Tifa's head and direct Jenova. A million thoughts ran through my head: why was Jenova here, why was he helping us, and are we going to get in trouble? I tried to figure out our fate by examining his expression in the rear-view mirror but his face was partially shadowed in the darkness.

Jenova pulled up outside of Tifa's house and I helped her out of the car. Her parents were asleep already so we snuck in quietly. I managed to deliver Tifa to her bed and she crawled in. "Thanks, Cloud," she mumbled gratefully before falling into a drunk sleep. I put her pumps down where she'd find them and took her cellphone out of her hand, placing it on her nightstand. If she dropped it off the bed in her sleep she'd probably break the expensive smartphone.

I left Tifa there; I didn't think she was going to be sick or anything. She hadn't drank _that _much; the girl was just emotionally beat and it was making her a mess, combined with the three or so beers she'd had. I walked back out the front door and was surprised to see Jenova's car still there, idling. I'd expect him to leave once he'd dropped off Tifa.

Maybe I'd judged the man unfairly and he wasn't the big dick he acted like. But this was the guy who made me a scapegoat for the his class to prove that he meant business. I was an unwilling victim for God's sake! My image of him as a dick would stay in place for now. He nodded at me and I got into the front seat of the car, the expensive leather feeling like heaven underneath me.

Chapter 12 – Katherine in a Trunk

I really didn't want to be in the car with Jenova and the awkward silence between us was deafening. My mind was reeling with thoughts of Tifa and Barret. I had been so certain that Barret was sweet on Tifa, so why was he with another girl? Had he orchestrated that whole thing? I had thought they that Barret and Tifa were friends but friends don't usually treat each other like complete shit.

And then there was Jenova; he was just sitting there, driving. I couldn't understand why he'd even stopped to talk to me on that street. He could've probably seen that Tifa was drunk from a mile away. So, why? I refused to believe he was doing this out of the kindness of his heart. He was probably waiting for me to lower my guard to he could attack me.

Something snapped me out of my revelry and I realized the car was stopped and Jenova was looking at me. I stared back before at him quizzically before I realized he'd ask me a question.

"Er, what?" I asked.

"Where should I drop you off?" He repeated, an unknown emotion clouding his eyes—probably annoyance. His eyes were a brilliant green, the kind of green I wasn't even sure truly existed in nature. The color of a tropical sea, maybe—I wasn't sure but they were such a bright color that I was certain they couldn't be natural.

"Oh," I said, my face flushed red from embarrassment. I gave him directions on how to get back to my dorm. It was getting late by now and the guards that were usually at the dorm gates were gone. We made it through the first set of gates easily before I realized I didn't have my card key. I cursed and search all of my pockets for it but it was gone.

He pulled up to the second gate and looked at me expectantly.

I laughed nervously. "I kinda lost my card key..." I trailed off. "So, I'll just walk from here." I said, unbuckling my seatbelt and opening the car door. I got up but a hand grabbed my wrist, holding me in place.

"How will you get in?" Jenova asked, not removing his hand from my arm.

"I'll just climb over the fence," I said, not moving. His grip sent strange feelings up and down my arm. My skin tingled where he held on and suddenly it got harder to breath; I wanted to yank my arm from his grip to get this strange sensation to stop.

"No—don't you need your card key to get in the building?" He asked.

I cursed again and realized that there weren't even any security guards on duty to let me in and all of my friends were out at that party. Not even my roommate was home. I had not of way of getting back into the building. "I'll just wait, I'm sure someone will come along and let me back in the building or something." I would probably be out there for hours before someone came along but there was nothing else I could do. At this point it didn't even matter; I just wanted to get as far away from Jenova as I could.

Jenova sighed, "Get back in and close the door." I protested but sometimes there is no arguing with some people. He wasn't going to take 'no' for an answer.

I did what he told me to and sat quietly as he drove off. I had no idea where we were going but I had a sinking suspicion that he was probably going to kill me and dump my body somewhere it wouldn't be found for a while. Seriously, the man was fucking frightening. He kept a tight grip on the steering wheel with one hand and worked the gearshift with the other, his level of concentration was nerve-wracking. My hands were sweating and I rubbed them on my jeans to try and dry them off. Jenova _would_ actually kill me if I got sweat all over his expensive car.

We drove for ten minutes and every few seconds, I snuck a glance at Jenova—just checking for any psychotic tendency that might rear its ugly head. My leg jiggled impatiently and I didn't even bother to stop it. I chewed the inside of my lip and tried to pay attention to where we were incase I need jump out of the car and make my way back to the dorm. The heavy silence was making me nervous along with the intense look on Jenova's face. God help me, I'll probably end up dying in this car as a result of an anxiety-induced heart attack.

He eventually pulled into the driveway of a small ranch-style house that was settled between two other normal looking homes. Jenova turned the engine off and got out of the car; I didn't move until he leaned back into the car and said, "You can stay here for the night if you need to."

I didn't know what to do or say. Did I follow him into the house and accept his offer graciously? That would be the right thing to do. But Jenova and I didn't like each other...I certainly didn't like him and he was such a dick to me... I couldn't force him to drive me back to the party. I couldn't help feeling like I'd been put in the world's shitiest situation. I should have just stayed at Tifa's. But what could I do? I was exhausted from my workout and dragging Tifa around...the coffee I'd drank earlier was no longer keeping me awake.

If I refused would that ruin the tentative truce we had seemed to declare? Would he make my life even worse? What he was offering me was big—he was a teacher...I shouldn't even be at his house alone. But he didn't seem to be worried about that which left me confused.

Jenova closed the car door and I had no choice but to follow him. I got out and closed the door behind me as he walked up to his front door. I followed him, trying not to step on his front lawn and mess up his grass. I wrung my hands in my shirt, creating wrinkles that would probably never come out.

He walked in the house and flipped on the hall light, illuminating the way. His house was fastidiously clean, not a speck of dirt or dust anywhere and it all looked incredibly impersonal. There were no pictures of family or anything else to indicate that Jenova had a personal life. There was a copy of The New York Times on his kitchen table but that was it. There weren't even any magnets on his fridge.

"Can you wait over there for a few minutes?" He asked, motioning me towards a leather couch that was in front of a modest-sized flat screen TV. I nodded and sank uncomfortably in the huge couch that swallowed me up.

I also had to stop and wonder were Jenova had gotten the money to buy such a nice house. All the immeneties in it seemed to be top of the line—there was no expense spared. I mean—even his car is worth a ton of money. How could he afford something like that on a teacher's salary. Especially since he didn't even have tenure or anything.

It would be easy to describe Jenova's house as Spartan. It completely fit his lack of personality and his ice-cold demeanor. There was almost no color in his house; everything was either black, white or in shades of gray. His interior decorator must have shit a brick trying to buy furniture for him. I could hear his steady, sure steps walking away from me and I tried to relax but it was useless.

The only personal item I'd actually seen so far was the antique Japanese katana Jenova had hanging over his mantle. And the thing was damn huge. It was a weird mantlepiece but Jenova was a weird character.

I got up to take a closer look at the sword. Now that I could really see it, I noticed it wasn't as old as I had originally thought. The wrapping on the hilt of the sword was heavily frayed and looked a little moth-eaten in places, though. I reached a hand up to touch it.

"My grandfather's from World War 2." A voice spoke behind me.

I jumped a foot in the air and spun around really quickly. "Oh crap! I'm sorry—I shouldn't have touched it." I started babbling trying to apologize for my rude actions.

He dismissed me with a wave of his hand. "No harm done. It has been in my family for years now—I've been meaning to have it appraised." He said off-handedly. "Anyway, I have a guest room ready for you." He said and he stalked off into the house. I followed him, not knowing what else to do; he wasn't a very hospitable host.

Jenova led me to a room at the end of the hall and opened the door for me, motioning that I should go in. I walked past him and look around, not sure what to expect. But it was a normal room with a queen-sized bed. This room was also done in shades of gray—no surprise there.

"I don't think I have any clothes that will fit you," he said, gazing down at me like my small-size was a transferable disease.

"No—It's alright. Thanks for your hospitality, Mr. Jenova." I thanked him, turning back towards the bed. "Goodnight." I finally said but he was gone by then.

I sighed at the closed door and for the first time since I had stepped foot into this house, I finally felt at ease. Now that Jenova wasn't looking at me and judging me with his cold eyes, I realized how tired I was. I crawled into bed, kicking my shoes and pants off before falling into a heavy sleep.

Chapter 13 – Hero/Heroine

I woke up to the smell of coffee wafting through my senses. Just the smell of it seemed to perk my whole body up a little. Then I remembered where I was and my stomach felt like it had dropped into a pit. I was in Jenova's house. He'd brought me here to spend the night. It was so damn weird. He didn't even like me so why had he been so nice last night and offered me a place to stay? It was totally out of character for him and I was afraid that it meant I would have to start being nice to him. And I could _not_ do that—no way, no how.

The thought of me being kind to him made my stomach churn unpleasantly. I sat up in bed, my arms curled around my stomach. After a while my stomach growled and I realized the churning I had been feeling was just hunger pangs. Embarrassed, I got out of bed and tugged my pants and shoes back on. There was a mirror hanging on the wall that I used to look at my reflection. Staring back at me was a teenage guy with blonde hair going every which way. I looked a mess but I figured Jenova didn't really expect that much from me so why bother prettying myself up? We're just two guys.

But first things first-I have priorities. Attached to my room was a bathroom that I make good use of before heading towards the kitchen. I let my feet drag as I tried to prolong my imminent doom. I had to go in there and thank him—he'd really gone out on a limb for me and he didn't owe me anything. He had helped out Tifa and he had given me a place to stay for the night and he had no reason to do that. It made me feel bad that I had been such a dick to him when he was helping me out so much and that I still couldn't help but to think he was a dick.

I took a deep breath before walking into the kitchen. My inhale turned into a gasp as I almost choked on air. Jenova was sitting at the table, hair tied back into a ponytail and glasses perched on the crook of his nose. He was reading a newspaper and sipping coffee out of a black mug. I'd never seen him in casual clothes like these before. He had on a black v-neck shirt and a pair of dark jeans. I don't understand why I stood there, gawking at him. He was still the same old Jenova and he was still the guy I was convinced was a dick. But regardless of all that, I was frozen in place.

"It's rude to lurk in doorways," He said after a sip of coffee. I started as his voice rang out and broke the silence.

Feeling awkward, I walked further into the kitchen and took a seat across from him, acutely aware of the fact that I was still wearing last night's clothes. I tucked my feet underneath myself hoping that I'd be able to disappear into nothingness. "Uh, sorry. But thanks for everything last night...it was really...decent of you." I finished. It still hurt to pay him compliments.

He raised an eyebrow at me over his newspaper. "Decent," He repeated and with a shrug, went back to reading.

After a few minutes he spoke again. "There's some cereal in the cabinets over there," he said, pointing. I'm grateful and wonder if he had heard the grumbling of my stomach. I got up and opened the cabinet he pointed to. There were three types of cereal: Total, Cheerios, and Special K. I grab the Cheerios off the shelf grumbling to myself and managed to find a bowl, spoon, and some milk. I carried it all to the table, hoping I wouldn't drop anything and make Jenova mad.

I poured a bowl of Cheerios and around shoving the cereal into my mouth managed to insult Jenova. "What's with all the old people cereals? Why are there no Lucky Charms?" I ask, bitching. Cereal that doesn't have sugar in it is not worth eating.

"That garbage is terrible for you, too much sugar." Was the response.

I snorted and dragged the sugar caddy over to myself and started dumping packet after packet of sugar into my Cheerios. I caught Jenova looking at me with thinly veiled disgust. I smirked and took a bite, savoring the sugary goodness. I moved onto my second bowl without stopping. Hey! It takes a lot of food to keep this body going after running God-knows-how-many miles a week.

"Hey, can I have some coffee?" I ask.

"It'll stunt your growth."

I almost choked on a spoonful of sugary goodness. I tried to peer over the paper he was reading to see his expression but he kept his face hidden. I sighed and just drank the milk out of the bottom of my bowl.

At the sound of my slurping, Jenova lowered his paper to glare at me. My table manners would put a dog to shame. I smirked at him, realizing how much fun it was to poke his buttons. It was interesting how easy it was for me to get to him. I honestly wasn't even doing anything too out of the norm. I guess I'm just a naturally aggravating and annoying person.

We fell into silence that was only broken by the sounds of me eating my third bowl of Cheerios.

"I should have known better than to give you the run of my food cabinets. For someone so short, you can certainly eat a lot." Jenova remarked offhandedly.

I snort at him, not in the least offended. As a runner himself, he should know how much I need to eat to keep myself going. I just shrugged and swallowed my mouthful. "I like to eat; it's not a crime."

He didn't say anything so I left it up to myself to fill in the awkward silence that was suffocating me. "So, did you run for your college too?" I asked, figuring he'd at least be able to talk to me about himself.

"I ran with my college, yes."

A pregnant pause.

What. The. Hell.

He couldn't say anything else to keep this conversation going? Was this seriously going to be all me? Did I have to carry this conversation all by myself? I didn't really want to have to start babbling but I had a feeling that I was already suffering from a case of verbal diarrhea. "What was your favorite event?"

"The 5k and the 3200."

"Ok... anything else?" I pried.

"I enjoyed running relays occasionally."

"You really don't want to talk about this do you?"

"There is not really much to talk about." He supplied, dryly.

I was about to say something else when my phone rang, startling me. I pulled my phone out of my pocket; it was Vincent calling. I glanced at Jenova but he wasn't looking at me. I answered the phone and ducked out of the kitchen, walking into the hallway. It would be rude of me to talk on the phone in front of him. I had at least been taught better manners than that.

"Cloud, is Tifa alright? She was freaking out last night." A deep voice said on the other side of the phone.

"Yeah—she walked in on Barrett with some other girl and she freaked out. You know how she can get sometimes... I brought her back home last night and she was blasted. But I think she was more upset than anything." I replied. See we're men; we don't have to greet each other when we call one another. It's just more manly that way.

Vincent sighed, "You know, I don't know what we're going to do with her. They weren't even going out."

"Yeah, but you know and I know that she has liked him for God knows how long. I may have also told her that Barret had asked me if she was coming to the party..."

"Well, that's weird. Why invite one girl over if you're planning on fooling around with another?"

"Back-up?" I supplied wryly.

I knew on the other end that he was rolling his eyes. "I'll see you later man." I said and hung up the phone. I looked down at the phone in my hand and turned it over, now seriously contemplating what happened last night. Vincent had a point, why had Barrett made such a big deal about Tifa coming if he was going to hook up with another girl? I'd never pegged him for such a dick but maybe I didn't really know the guy. Maybe he was the stereotypical varsity football player that everyone assumed he was.

I wasn't so sure, but what did I have to go on but pure gut instinct? I didn't even have any womanly instincts to boast about. I chewed on my lip nervously as I walked back into the kitchen and sat down. Jenova looked at me over the newspaper but didn't say anything.

I sighed and glanced at the clock on the kitchen wall. It was past ten already and I still had a lot of work to do on my detention project, not to mention the homework I had neglected to in order to go to the party last night.

"I can give you a ride back to your dorm—security should be there to let you in now."

"Yeah, that'd be great. I have a lot of work I still need to do..."

"Are you ready?" I nodded and we both went to the car. He unlocked the doors and I got in, readying myself for the silence that would smother me the entire ride. No, I am not being melodramatic. I'm in the car with my math teacher who happens to severely dislike me for no damn reason. He may have helped me out last night with Tifa and giving me a place to stay but I'm not completely convinced he's not still gunning for me. Maybe he's waiting for me to lower my guard so that he can strike when I'm most vulnerable... Now I just sound paranoid.

Jenova dropped me off at the second gate and I thanked him. All I got in response was a nod before he turned the car around and drove off. He really was that eager to get the hell away from me. "What a dick." I mumbled as I climbed the wrought iron fence that surrounded my dorm building. I jumped over the top and hit the ground lightly. Thank god, because if I had hurt myself, Tseng would have my head.

I walked up to the front door of my dorm building and rang the bell to get the attention of the security officers stationed inside. I explained to them that I had lost my card key and couldn't get in. They were reluctant to let me in but one of the guards recognized me and vouched for me. I was really grateful and told them as much as I walked in. Then, heading for the stairs, I steeled myself for the huge work load I'd be soon attempting to tackle.

Too bad Jenova hadn't let me have any coffee because God knows, I could really use it about now.

Chapter 14 – Curse of Curves

Monday morning, I stalked the school halls like I was Godzilla trying to destroy Tokyo. I saw a freshman glance at me with a frightened look on his face and I snarled at him, causing him to quickly run off. Others made sure to stay clear from my path, the scowl on my face warning the masses off from miles away.

I kept a tight grip on my steaming cup of coffee, hoping that its caffeine would be enough to at least get me through the morning. God only knew how I'd be performing in practice today.

I had barely slept the entire weekend, I had had so much work to do. I was mentally destroyed and it was only Monday morning. I had taken only a few breaks for sleeping, eating, and running. Coach is always telling us to keep running even if we have a lot of school work because it helps to relieve stress and helps you to think more clearly. Most of the time I just use it as an excuse to stop working.

I'd almost missed first period this morning, I'd only taken an hour nap but it was still hard for me to stop hitting the snooze button. The worst part was that even thought I'd nearly killed myself working on it this weekend, I wasn't even done with the project.

In Chemistry I handed in my homework that was really just pages of scribbled answers with little to no work shown. I'd probably get half credit if my teacher was feeling generous. I sat down at my desk like I was a man waiting for his turn at the gallows. Tifa sent me a worried look.

"Hey, thanks for everything Friday night. You're a great guy Cloud," She said.

"No problem," I waved her apology away with a a sigh and took a long chug of my coffee. It scalded the back of my throat but I could care less.

"Are you OK?" She asked, her brows knit together in worry.

"I didn't finish the project," I replied and she inhaled harshly.

"Dammit. I'm sorry, I feel like this is all my fault—I shouldn't have forced you to go to that party. You didn't even have fun, you just took care of me. Christ, I'm such a crappy friend," She said while wringing her hands together.

"Hey, I'm a big kid. I made my own choices," I said, giving her a slight smile. If she was anyone else I would have blamed her in part, for my problems. But she was Tifa and she wasn't the reason my project wasn't finished. Even if I hadn't gone to that party, I wouldn't have been able to finish the project; it was just too much. Besides, she'd had just as tough a weekend as me; I would have to be blind not to see that. Her eyes had gray circles under them that I knew weren't there the last time I saw her.

"There's one more thing..." She began sheepishly.

"What?" I asked, trying to hurry her along because the teacher looked like he was about to start lecturing.

"I kinda took this from you Friday night...I didn't even realize until this morning; I'm sorry." She fished out a card from her purse and handed it to me. It was the card key I'd been missing on Friday night.

"You wouldn't believe all the trouble you caused me," I said with a smile. Somethings you just can't be mad about, though because they are just too ridiculous. Who knew why Tifa had my card key card, all I know was that because of that weird ass snafu, I'd spend Friday night in my arch enemy's house.

At least it made for a hilarious story.

"Oh crap! I'm so sorry!" She apologized.

The teacher had started speaking so I whispered back, "Nah, it was no problem, someone let me in." I lied. I doubted that she would believe me even if I told her the truth—it was just too far-fetched. Would anyone of my friends believe me if I told them I had just spent the night at Jenova's house? Yuffie might but she is gullible and way too trusting. I could just imagine trying to prove it to all of them.

I had had a hard time proving to _myself_ that it had actually happened. I was still in shock.

"Oh! That's good. I'm glad I didn't cause you any more trouble this weekend." She smiled at me, genuinely relieved.

"This is going to sound totally strange...but I swear that Friday night, I remember seeing Jenova," Tifa said. She shot a glance over at the teacher but he was distracted, answering another student's question.

"Oh... uhh. I was doing an impression of him. Maybe that is what you're remembering..." Even to my ears it sounded false and pathetic. But Tifa bought it—you can't really argue about what happened when you were so drunk you stole your friend's card key. I wondered again how drunk Tifa was Friday night. She had been staggering but she'd been pretty lucid and hadn't been slurring her words. Should I have left her alone to sleep it off alone? She was here now and she was fine, but what if next time she didn't come into school the next day? I vowed that the next time Tifa was that drunk again, I'd spent the night with her and make sure she was OK.

While I'd been thinking, Tifa had continued talking to me. She was going on about Barret and how she'd decided that she was over him. It was totally a 'girl' thing to say, if you ask me. I just nodded and went along with her strange convoluted logic.

"So I think I need to move on, you know? Find greener pastures. I need a rebound, if you know what I mean."

I didn't know what she meant but I nodded my head because I didn't want her to look at me like I was stupid or something. She started listing some guys on her fingers whom she figured might be worth her time. She asked my input once or twice but didn't really listen to what I had to say.

"Ethan Greene?" She prompted.

"Oh... er, he's got... nice... skin." I said lamely.

She rolled her eyes.

"Nate Killinger?"

"Uh, he has good running form? He gets really sweaty sometimes, though."

"Cloud, you're useless."

The teacher called attention to himself and class started. He started writing a chemical reaction on the board and asked the class to balance it stoichiometrically. I started working on the problem in my note book, the scratching of my pencil and the coffee in my cup keeping me cognizant. Tifa and I didn't say anything else to each other until second period.

The first period bell rang and our teacher let us out of class for a break. Our chemistry class was two period long today and our teacher let us take a break between the two periods. Tifa stood up and stretched, leaning her butt against her desk. She sighed and crossed her arms over her ample chest.

"Clo—ouddd," Tifa whined at me to get my attention. I leaned back in my chair and put my feet on the seat in front of me. Once I looked over at her, she started talking again. "You know, you should really be more supportive of me."

"I am supportive of you," I said.

"Well, I could really use your help trying to find my rebound relationship!"

"Tifa, you and Barret weren't even going out." I felt the need to make that fact known to her.

"But I've been snubbed so hard, I _feel_ like I've been dumped." She tried to reason.

"Whatever." I laughed.

"So, do you know any guys on the team who might be willing to take me out?" Tifa said, pursing her lips and trying to give me a puppy dog face. "You see, I need to find a guy I sorta know so it won't be too weird."

I named a few guys from the team but she rapidly shot them down in succession.

Too weird.

Too short.

Too tall.

Too geeky.

Too conceited.

Too into running.

Like that could ever be a bad thing.

"Ugh! Cloud, you're hopeless! I swear to God you are asexual sometimes!" She yelled, frustrated. I shrugged a shoulder and suggested that she should ask Aerith and Tifa for help. This really wasn't my kind of thing.

Somehow, I stayed awake throughout the second half of Chemistry and made it to my Wutai Studies class. I tossed my empty coffee cup into the garbage and was already thinking of when I'd be able to get another cup of the stuff. Somehow, in two days, I'd managed to become addicted to coffee. I'd thought I was addicted to sleep a few weeks ago but I seem to have replaced one addiction for the other. No offense to coffee, but I'd rather be addicted to sleep.

My eyes rested on Rude, who was flipping a pen between his fingers, when I got a brilliant idea.

Rude was a good guy. He wasn't too weird, too tall, too short, too geeky, too conceited or too into running. He was just the kind of guy Tifa was looking for. And if I got a guy for Tifa, she might just shut up for five minutes and might not drink too much at the next party we go to.

I tried to think of a way to bring up Tifa subtly in conversation with Rude. I eventually settled on asking him about the party—I figured I could eventually aim the topic at Tifa from there.

"Wild party, Friday night," I said.

"Oh yeah, you left early and missed Reno dancing topless on the table with Yuffie." Rude replied.

"Yuffie was topless too?" I asked, shocked.

"No, just Reno. Vincent had to grab him off of the table—was afraid he was going to break it."

"Reno does get a little carried away at parties." I winced, it wouldn't be the first time Reno's crazy drunk actions had gotten him in trouble at a party.

"Luckily, the football team parties even harder than that idiot." Rude laughed. "So, how's Tifa? Man, I heard what happened to her and that blows."

Was it really this easy? Had the God of Conversation finally blessed me? Somehow the topic had turned to Tifa and I hadn't even had to do anything!

"Oh you know, she's a tough girl—she's already over it."

"Nothing much phases her."

"No, that's for sure. Besides, I figure Barret has to be blind to have hooked up with that skank over Tifa." I went on, trying to lure Rude out.

"Hell yes, the girl has got the body of a playboy model! Her personality isn't bad either," Rude joked. "Who wouldn't want to hook up with or go out with her?"

"Apparently, Barret," I replied.

After that our conversation drifted to my cross-country season and towards his after-school job. I tried to work on my project for Jenova as we talked but I still didn't have to time or materials necessary to finish it. If I'd had another few days to work on it, I'd be able to hand in a fairly passable project.

By the time sixth period rolled around, I had completed another page of my project but I had resolved myself to my impending doom. As I walked town the halls, I could've sworn that I heard people whispering behind my back about how I was a dead man walking. I could feel all their eyes on me as I shouldered my bag and marched towards the math class room like a solider to his battle field.

My friends had all heard about how I hadn't been able to finish the project. They had all spent the last few periods coming up with excuses for me. But I knew Jenova would see through any excuse I used. He also knew I was at that party Friday night—there would be no compassion or understanding for me.

Nobody knew where I had spend Friday night. Somehow Tifa still felt responsible for me not finishing my project, even though I tried to convince her that I never could have finished the project anyway. Besides, she thought that she'd only taken up a few hours of my night. She had no way of knowing that because she accidently took my card key that she'd locked me out of my room and doomed me to spending the night at Jenova's.

Aerith shot me a sympathetic look as she darted off for her English classroom. Reno held the door open for me and hummed the death march under his breath. Yuffie hit him in the head and scowled.

I sat down at my desk and scuffed my sneaker along the floor, trying to brace myself for Jenova. It was really useless. There was nothing I could say to him that would make him pity me. In fact, he probably already pitied me. Who was I kidding—he probably _hated_ me.

Jenova stalked into the class room and he turned to face the class, meeting my eyes in the crowd. I had to hold in a gasp that was trying to escape my throat; his eyes were a bright green color that seemed to burn me.

For the instant that he looked at me, I could swear that he knew something about myself that I didn't. He looked at me, his eyes roaming over me before he turned to his desk. There was something in his eyes I didn't like—some strange emotion I couldn't place.

Whatever it was, I didn't think it bode well for me.

End Chapter 4

Author's Note - Sorry this is so long in coming, but you can't rush these things! No, seriously, if you want me to update quicker—harass me. You'll get your results sooner. Look at me, telling you guys how to best torture me. I'm so self-depreciating.

As always, review away. I love reviews and I live off of them, even if they're just short one liners.


	5. Part 5

Curse of Curves

By: Fearless_Dranzer

Part 5

Chapter 15 – Failure by Designer Jeans

I tore my eyes away from Jenova and chewed my lip, glaring down at my desk. It wasn't fair. Nothing was fair in life though, as jaded and emo as that sounded. I seriously contemplated holding my breath until I passed out from lack of oxygen. It seemed to be the only viable option left for me. Instead, I squeezed my eyes tightly together as Jenova called me out in front of the class.

"Mr. Strife, do you have that assignment for me?" He asked quietly. The entire class was silent and I swear to God, I could've heard a pin drop. No one breathed. I guess the rest of the school had heard about me being a dead man.

"I couldn't finish it." I replied honestly. My shoulders hunched up around my ears, bracing myself for his cold stare.

He nodded and straightened up some papers on his desk. "See me after class then."

That was it? I couldn't help but be confused and surprised. He didn't take the chance to berate me in front of the entire class like he had done before? What the hell was going on here?

I looked at Jenova and my brows crumpled together as I tried to read the look on his face. It was something I wasn't accustomed to seeing—a smile. Wait no—it was a smirk.

That fuck!

He knew I would never be able to finish in time. He gave me that ridiculous project knowing that I would fail to finish it. He set me up for failure.

But why?

Was he still looking to make an example of me? "Hey students, this is what happens when you don't do what I assign you?" Or was this way more personal than that? Had I done something to upset him? He'd seemed so kind Friday night... what had happened to change that? Or was that kindness just an act to get me to let down my defenses?

Fuck... all this thinking was making my head pound and my fingers itched to be wrapped around another cup of coffee. Or around Jenova's throat—take your pick.

I sighed inaudibly, my chest rising and falling. I turned my head to see Tifa eyeing me wearily. "Let me help you," she mouthed. I shook my head "no". There was nothing she could do to help me and she would probably just end up bringing herself down. I can't really protect myself from Jenova but I could at least protect my friends from him. Or try to.

Besides, I didn't finish the project. I had to accept responsibility for my actions. You can't just bitch out of things. That's the problem with most people these days—they don't accept responsibility. I'm not going to be like that.

I could feel Vincent's eyes boring holes into the back of my head. He was trying to get a read on my emotional state. Even Reno was calm. He wasn't joking or fidgeting in his seat—he was acting very un-Reno-like. Yuffie was busy trying to make Jenova's head burst into flames with her mind, she was staring so intently at him. Any other day, the image of her doing that would have made me laugh but today I just felt like closing my heavy eyelids for a long time.

There was no way out of facing Jenova short of faking a heart attack in the middle of class. And while Yuffie may be willing to attempt something drastic like that, I knew my acting skills would never hold up to Jenova's scrutiny.

Instead, I just sat in class, trying to keep up with Jenova's lecture. It took almost all my energy to get my eyes to stay open. I was barely able to take notes but concentrating on what he said helped me to process all the information flooding my tired brain. I kept myself occupied until the end of the class but fear gnawed away in the back of my head.

Eventually, the class ended and as the bell rang, Tifa was right next to me. "Please Cloud, let me explain everything Friday night to Jenova. I'm sure he will understand..."

I sighed, "Tifa, I appreciate that you're trying to help but there's really nothing you can do. More importantly, it's not your fault that I didn't do what I was supposed to do. I'm a big boy—I can take it." I looked over at Vincent who was hovering behind Tifa. "Can you make sure she leaves?"

He silently nodded and gently took Tifa by the arm, pulling her out of the classroom with a firm hand. Reno walked past me and slapped me on the shoulder. "Man, I'd love to have your computer if you don't make it out of this."

I didn't have to respond because Yuffie thwacked him over the head with her fist and dragged him out of the classroom with her. Then it was just Jenova and I.

He stood at his desk, shuffling papers as I walked up to him. Jenova ignored me to rearrange various items on his desk as I shifted my weight. Were we going to go through this routine every time I needed to talk to Jenova? It was a power play, that much I was certain. I was also certain that the power play was working.

Nervously, I chewed my lower lip and fiddled with the buckle on my belt. I knew that the outcome of this was going to be miserable—I just wanted to try to be as prepared for it as I could. It's like running a race on a day you know that your muscles are going to give out on you. You have to run your hardest regardless of the outcome of the race. It just sucks when you're standing there on the starting line, waiting for the starter gun.

Right now, I was on that starting line—my body poised like I was ready to take flight. Strange blue-green eyes flickered up to look at me and I flinched without realizing it. Ashamed, I forced myself to look Jenova in the face. I couldn't show any weakness—he'd eat me alive without a second thought.

He raised an eyebrow at me, apparently amused at my small act of defiance. I refused to be intimidated. "So Mr. Strife, explain to me why you failed to do your assignment in its entirety," he said.

I took a deep breath. "I didn't have enough time to complete the assignment. I really believe that it would have been impossible to complete that assignment in a timely fashion and have it be anything but garbage. I don't believe in handing in subpar work."

"Your beliefs are duly noted, Mr. Strife. Unfortunately, your excuse isn't good enough. I'm sure if you had spent Friday night working, you would have had a better chance of handing me a completed project. I'll be seeing you in detention." I opened my mouth to protest but he held up a hand, cutting off my argument before it could even be started.

"You'll be having lunch detention with me for a week, starting today. Luckily, I don't have lunch duty this week or you'd have to be late to practice. I'm sure Tseng wouldn't like his star runner coming to practice late everyday for a week. You know how he hates to play favorites."

I stood there with my mouth open, gasping for air like a fish. A week of lunch detention? Alone in a room with him!

I was a dead man.

Jenova sat down at his desk and swept his long hair back with one hand. "You have exactly ten minutes to go down to the cafeteria and get your lunch. If you are late, your week of detention will double." He waved me off and dismissed me.

I stood there for a few seconds just staring at him. Who the hell did this guy think he was? God? He was a condescending asshole who seemed to have the largest stick I'd ever seen rammed up his ass.

"The clock is ticking, Mr. Strife."

I spun around on my heel and slammed the door behind me as I exited the classroom. I stormed down the hallway like I had a personal vendetta against the floor. The bell had already rung for lunch so I was risking getting a detention for being in the halls without a pass. Seriously, more detention was just what I needed right now.

I dared someone to look at me the wrong day. I was raring for a fight—me, Mr. Laid-Back. It was maddening the way Jenova could get under my skin. I had never met another person who could evoke such a response from me.

Luckily, no one dared challenge me about being in the hallway during class time and I snuck into the cafeteria and cut a third of the lunch line so that I was standing next to Tifa. It was a dick thing to do but I was on a time limit after all and I wasn't going to give Jenova the satisfaction of having me in his clutches for another week.

When I caught up to Tifa, she was worrying her bottom lip between her teeth. "Oh! Cloud, thank goodness you're back! For a minute there I thought he might actually have killed you and then I'd be down a best friend." She smiled at me, genuinely relieved to see me until she saw the murderous expression on my face.

"Uh-oh," she whispered. "What happened?"

I glanced down at my watch, less than seven minutes remaining for me to get lunch and make it back. "I'm stuck in lunch detention with that dick for the rest of the week. In fact, if I don't get back there within the next six minutes and thirty-five seconds, I'm going to have another week of punishment added on." I said grimly.

"Wow, so harsh. I'm really sorry about all of this Cloud." Tifa said, grabbing my hands between both of hers.

I rolled my eyes at her and replied, "It's still not your fault Tifa; I told you he gave me way too much work to finish in one weekend, regardless of whether or not I showed up at a party for an hour or two."

She didn't look convinced but we'd reached the front of the line and I barely had time to pick out a sandwich and bag of chips before I had to sprint back to Jenova's office to avoid getting more time added to my sentence. I waved to Tifa over my shoulder and caught Vincent giving me a wary eye. I shrugged a shoulder at him and he responded with a curt nod.

Vincent and I don't usually communicate with words. Bros just don't work that way. I caught a glimpse of my other friends standing behind him but they weren't looking my way so I quickly escaped the cafeteria.

I glanced down at my watch and picked up my pace to a quick jog—I seriously wasn't going to be caught walking into that classroom late. According to my watch, I arrived ten seconds early so I waited a bit before coming in the room.

I swaggered into the classroom with a second remaining on my watch. Jenova glanced down at his watch and frowned. I got that smug bastard; involuntarily, I smirked at Jenova. It was petty but I felt like I had won a small victory by waiting until the last second to walk in. It had to aggravate a perfectionist like Jenova to no end.

"Sit down, Mr. Strife," Jenova said, indicating the chair in front of his desk. I tossed my backpack down by the legs of the chair and sat down, leaning back and stretching my own legs. They felt nice and limber from the jog from the cafeteria. I stretched until I could feel the muscles in my thighs sing and I sighed contentedly. There is really nothing better than stretching your muscles out.

I looked up to see Jenova's eyes locked on me and there was that weird expression again. I didn't know what to make of it. Jenova shook his head slowly and swallowed like he hadn't had anything to drink in a year.

He leaned forward and placed a stack of papers in front of me. "Old exams you will be grading. The answer key is on top. Please use a red pen." I obligingly grabbed a red pen out of a cup on his desk and he responded by glaring at me. Maybe I should've asked first but these days I live to torture this man. And I'm making every breath count.

Chapter 16 – A Beautiful Lie

I took a bite of my sandwich and was rewarded when the taste of tomato, lettuce, and mayonnaise burst across my tongue. I love eating. I really do. There is nothing better than being able to feel the joy that eating and feeling full brings—except maybe stretching. Usually, I eat more than just a sandwich and a bag of chips but I'd left my apple and granola bar in my school locker. I'd eat those later.

I put X's on a few wrong answers and drew smiley faces next to each final grade that I wrote on the top of the tests. I knew it would get Jenova good but there was nothing he could do about it. I also gave gushing remarks to anyone who passed the test.

I hummed under my breath loud enough to be heard and took a bite of my sandwich making sure to chew loudly. I made lots of noise crinkling and shuffling papers and even kicked his desk a few times accidentally on purpose. I earned myself some glares and at one point he leaned back in his chair and rubbed his temples like he could feel the mother of all headaches coming on. I felt very proud of myself.

I finished my sandwich and tossed the container into the trash bin next to Jenova's desk. I missed and had to go get it. From there I proceeded to attempt a few more shots into a further bin. Let's just say that I have no future in basketball.

"Mr. Strife, maybe you should just walk over to the garbage and place your trash in it since apparently you have no hand-eye coordination," Jenova grit out between clenched teeth. I figured I owed the guy something and tossed the wad of paper one more time, finally making the shot. OK—maybe I had been missing on purpose.

I sat down again in my chair hard enough to make it skid into Jenova's desk. His head jerked up sharply and he glared at me. I smiled back sweetly. I went back to grading and he took a few seconds to tie his long hair up into a lopsided ponytail. I had to hold back a snicker because the guy looked so exasperated.

"It's lopsided you know," I said.

"I know," he responded, rubbing his eyes. "It keeps it off the back of my neck."

"Why don't you just cut it all off? Then it won't be on the back of your neck." I suggested innocently.

He gave me another strange look and didn't answer me for a few minutes. What is it with this guy and the weird looks? Do I confuse him that fucking badly? Or does he seriously hate me that much? I can't stand not being able to read this guy. His emotions are so carefully hidden and the few times he slips and I can see the feelings behind his mask—I can't read what I see. It's like finding the secret to the universe written on a piece of scrap paper in a language no one can read.

Fucking frustrating.

"I like it long." He finally said, watching me for a reaction. I was about to respond when the bell rang.

I jumped in surprise, spilling all the tests off my lap and onto the floor. Reflexively, I cursed and bent to the floor to pick up the papers. Some of them had slide pretty far away from me and Jenova helped me collect them. I went to hand him my stack of paper, thanking him for helping me pick up the papers when our hands brushed against each other.

I took a deep breath as his hot hand burned into mine, sucking away any thought I had running through my head. I looked up from where I was kneeling and Jenova was bent over towards me. His strange-colored eyes locked directly on mine. I froze where I was and it took a few seconds for me to pull myself together. I shook my head like I was coming out of a trance and the second I had control of my legs, I bolted from that room like a bat out of hell.

I barely made it to the locker room before the bell rang. I was shaking I was so unnerved. I couldn't even say what the hell bothered me so much about that exchange. It was like one second I was in charge of the situation and then the next second, his hand touched mine and I lost control of everything.

I changed quickly, going through the motions without thinking and Barrett was strangely quiet as well. But I was feeling too uneasy about what had just happened to say anything. His silence may have also had something to do with the fact that my best friend had caught him in bed with another girl. Which must make it awkward as hell to be around me considering he figures I know what happened.

Actually, isn't it my job at this point to make snide comments to him or something? Sometimes it really sucks being best friends with a girl—I'm not very good at being catty. Besides, I'm friends with Barret too. I just can't act like an ass to him for something I don't really have any business knowing. And at this point, I'm certain I don't know the whole story.

The entire gym period passed pretty uneventfully; we were playing volleyball and I missed a few easy hits but my team sucked anyway. Barret tried to talk to me a little bit but it was mindless conversation—him asking me about my week's-worth of detention and me asking him how his practices were going. A few times he looked like he wanted to talk to me about something more important than the weather but he changed his mind each time.

And I hate to admit it, but I needed the forty-five minute period to think over what happened between Jenova and me today. I'd gone from feeling stunned to feeling pissed at myself for pretty much running away from him. I'd had the upper hand for once! Or at least it seemed like I had the upper hand. Granted, I'd done nothing but torture him in petty and childish ways but for God's sake—I'm just seventeen. Not exactly the most mature age.

It was enough to make my teeth grind but I tried to calm myself down, thinking that for practice today we would be doing a nice long distance run. Distance runs are just the thing to work out kinks in your muscles and emotions. I've never done anything more calming and relaxing than running at a steady pace for an hour and thirty minutes.

It wasn't until after class in the locker room that Barret started talking about something more substantial than the weather.

"Yo, Strife—can I talk to you about something important?" He looked at me and I looked around noting how the locker room was pretty empty by now since it was the last period of the day and people were rushing to get to home. I was rummaging through my track bag searching for my Chapstick that of course had disappeared into some randomly placed black hole.

I gave up searching and looked over at my friend. "Go for it, man."

"It's about Tifa—she…she saw something Friday night and I really need to talk to her about it..." He said trying to look like he wasn't nervous as hell talking to me about this.

I waved my hand. "Bro, she's good. She told me what happened and is just really embarrassed that she didn't knock first." So maybe I embellish a little. "She's been busy thinking about this other guy. It's sickening listening to her go on about him."

"Oh, well... was she planning on asking this other guy out?" Barret asked in a strangled voice, which sounded very strange coming out of a guy his size.

I shrug my shoulder trying to read Barret's reaction accurately. "Who knows? Tifa's fickle when it comes to guys."

"Who is this guy?" Barret asked, putting his football chest pads on.

I laced up my trainers. "She won't tell me. Just keeps going on about how great he is. I think he graduated last year or something. Girls are always chasing older guys." OK, maybe it's wrong that I'm manipulating one friend to help another but I really want to know what is going on between these two and I need to know what happened last friday.

"It was kinda weird Friday though, Tifa said these two freshmen told her that you were looking for her and wanted her to come upstairs." I said nonchalantly.

"Oh, well. It's funny. 'Cause I was asking around for her and nobody had seen her for a while and than some kid told me he saw her with some other dude, you know... hooking up." Barret strapped his wrist guards on and fastened the velcro on his thigh guards.

"Really?" My brow furrowed; the plot had thickened. "That's strange—she was hanging out with Vincent, Yuffie, and Reno outside on the deck for most of the night. She never told me about some other guy."

He grunted and I fumbled with my watch, checking to make sure it was strapped on my wrist. I was really just pretending to act busy to draw out the conversation.

Then, an idea hit me as I remembered the phone conversation Vincent and I had Saturday morning. None of this seemed like something a guy like Barret would do. It was too stereotypical for a douche-y high school varsity jock. Seemed like something straight out of an 80's John Hughs' movie.

"Hey, did you ever think that maybe those freshmen set the two of you up or something?" I suggested.

Barret thought it over for a moment. "I guess, but why would they do that? Actually... you know it is damn weird. You're probably not going to believe this but when Tifa found me that night... I had started out alone in my room. I was about to call you and ask you if you'd seen Tifa and this girl came crashing out of my closet with no top on. The next second, Tifa opened the door and then both Tifa and the topless girl were gone..."

"Dude, if you weren't my friend, I would totally say you were bullshitting me."

"Swear to God—it was the damned weirdest thing."

"Have you talked to Tifa yet?"

"Nah..."

"Well maybe you should..." I suggested before tugging up the tongue of my sneakers and jogging out of the locker room with my drawstring bag swinging against my back. I could hear the ice rattling in my water bottle as it hit my back.

I would let Barret deal with this bizarre situation. It was way out of my expertise at this point. Topless girls hiding in closets and freshmen with strange vendettas? Count me out. I'd rather deal with murderous Calculus teachers. It was just all too high school for me. Not that I'm acting like I'm above high school—I just don't have it in me to care about all the drama.

Instead, I jogged around the fields until it was time for practice to start. I headed to the team's meeting spot and saw Tseng already there, reading through a running magazine and marking things down in a notebook that he always carries with him.

"I'm looking for new uniforms for the team. The school president has finally decided that we should replace the old ones." Tseng said, not looking up from his magazine.

I snorted. "Why replace them now? They've still got another season or two left in them before the seams disintegrate." I pulled my water bottle out and took a small measured sip. I hate getting cramps from drinking too much water when I run. There's one guy on the team who I sometimes run with that gets a wicked water belly if he so much as takes a sip of water while he's running.

He snorts at my joke and looks up from his magazine finally. "Change in the workout for today. It's still a distance run but we're making it a pacing run. You know the routine—speed up every two minutes for a thirty second interval." I nod. It's not that hard of a workout to do, you just sweat a little more than you would doing just a regular distance run.

It'll be a fun workout though, workouts like this one are always run in groups and we can all talk. The time goes quickly especially when this one guy, Tooley, gets going doing his impression of the school's principal.

The rest of the team quickly showed up, goofing around like usual. Jenova came behind them, holding himself aloof from the joking. What an ass.

Tseng got us out on a quick warm up and when we came back he explained the workout to the others and told us that he and Jenova had figured out what groups we would all be split into. They were groups of two and three and by the time everyone's name had been called I realized I was in a group by myself.

"Uh, Coach? You didn't call my name." I said.

"That's because you're running with Jenova for this workout, Cloud. Figured you could use a change." Tseng said flippantly, tucking a pen behind he ear. "Now all of you get going! I wanna be done in time for dinner!" He blew his whistle and everyone else scattered. Jenova walked over to me and I ground my teeth together hard.

"I'll call out the intervals." Jenova offers and with a grunt we both take off with me deciding on an initial pace and him working on pushing me faster.

As much as I hate the prick, he's a great running partner for me. He's capable of going my pace and faster and he isn't afraid to force the pace. He also calls out the intervals without fail. We head into the woods, running the trails that have been there since before the cross-country team was even established. Sometimes if you're really quiet, you can catch a glimpse of a fleeting deer.

Sunlight streamed between the leaves but we were mostly bathed in shade, cooling down the autumn afternoon. It was one of my favorite times to run. The leaves were still green but they were only hanging onto the last vestiges of summer. At some points the trails were wide enough that we could run next to each other, occasionally, our arms brushed and I would grunt out an apology or he would.

All I know is that the hair on my arms felt electrified whenever he touched me. It was like I had just stuck my finger into a socket. I had never felt this when anyone else ever touched me. So why was I so sensitive to his touch? Was it because he made my skin crawl? No... It didn't feel like that. I just hated him because he was a dick... he didn't disgust me...

And when the trails grew too narrow for us to run next to each other, he took the lead and I found myself staring at his back, mesmerized by the swinging of his long ponytail. I could see why he tied it off to the side as sweat trickled down the back of my neck. It must suck to have something clinging to the back of your neck, getting covered in sweat, being damp and itchy.

His silver hair swung across his back with each step he took and sometimes managed to get itself wrapped around his left arm. I found myself wanting to lean forward and untangle it for him but before I could do that, he always brushed it off himself.

It was a strange feeling that kept my mind occupied for the duration of the workout.

Chapter 17 – Feeling This

Tuesday morning, I was sitting in my Chemistry class with Tifa gnawing away at her lower lip. The teacher was moving around checking homework so I turn to her and starting talking.

"Tifa, you're gonna chew right through your lip if you keep that up." I said, one eyebrow raised.

"Ugh, I know. I just feel so bad," she replied as she rummaged through her oversized purse for pink lip-gloss. She applied it as she continued talking to me and I marveled at her ability to multitask. "I feel like I'm to blame for your detention. You wouldn't have gone to that stupid party or have been locked out of your dorm if it weren't for me. You probably could have gotten the rest of your project done!"

I leaned back in my chair and crossed my arms behind my head. "I've told you this before—I wouldn't have gotten that project done anyway. It was way too long. Besides, I only lost a couple of hours last night—nothing that would have saved me in the long run."

"I'm such a terrible friend!" She moaned. "You're trying to make me feel better when you're the one with the problem!"

"You don't have to tell me, I know I'm a great guy," I teased her softly. She looked up at me with a shy smile and I could see that her eyes were faintly red. She'd been crying and probably because of me or Barret. "Hey, what do you think of Rude?" I asked suddenly.

This clearly caught her off guard and she looked at me with surprise. "He's a nice guy, a little quiet at times but then again who can get a word in around Reno and Yuffie? Why?"

I shrugged my shoulder nonchalantly, "He was telling me how cool he thought you were yesterday." Sow those seeds Cloud, sow those seeds.

"Really?" She blushed pink at this and looked down demurely at her feet. "Maybe I'll talk to him today. See what he's doing later on?"

"I think that's a good idea." I replied, watering those seeds.

Tifa spent the rest of the class with a faint smile on her face and I felt happy that I'd managed to get her to stop feeling so terrible. She might not be the one suffering through detention with her arch-nemesis, but she's the one who got her heart broken. I've learned that there's nothing worse than a girl with a broken heart. Luckily, Tifa is usually one of the most grounded girls I know—she doesn't start drama or pick fights—she's just content with herself and her friends. It's probably the reason why we're so close—she's not like other girls and that made it easy for me to treat her like one of the guys.

One of the guys.

I looked over at her distinctly female figure. She most certainly didn't look like a guy but I'd grown so used to her company over the years that she'd become something asexual to me. To all the other guys in high school she'd grown up into a sex bomb and I was the lucky guy who was her best friend. But to me, Tifa was just Tifa—as beautiful and lively as she'd ever been. Tifa was something stagnant in my life and I valued her for it.

Over the next few periods, I relaxed, forgetting what awaited me later on in my day. Who could blame me? For the first time in a while, Tifa was happy and I was on top of all my work. Maybe I was just deluding myself though. Everything seemed to be going well but I couldn't get my stomach to unclench itself. It felt like there was acid burning my insides.

"Cloud!" Aerith called as she picked up her step to catch up to me. She's tiny for a girl, very slim, so I feel like I tower over her usually. But today she was wearing wedge sandals, a sundress, and a sweater.

"You look all dressed up," I replied.

She blushed. "I just felt like being pretty today, that's all."

I laughed, "Aerith, you're one of the prettiest girls in the entire school!"

That got her stammering. "Enough about me, Cloud! You look happy, did something good happen?"

"Nah, nothing in particular—it's just a good day."

She nodded and smiled at me. Sometimes I think Aerith might be the smartest person I know; she always seems to understand what you mean even if you don't say it. Maybe that just means that she's good at understanding people. Who knows—I just know that most of the time, I never have to explain myself to Aerith and she just understands.

Sixth period finally caught up to me and I made my way to the classroom. Reno was already sitting in his seat composing a love letter to some helpless girl while Yuffie just rolled her eyes at him. Reno has probably had half the school's population in love with him at one point in the last two years—this girl was just another victim to his good looks and playboy attitude.

A few minutes after I arrived, Jenova demanded the attention of the class and started lecturing. Not once did he call on me or even look at me. Hell, I even raised my hand to see if that would get anything out of him. He didn't even look—it was like he was deliberately avoiding looking at the area of the room where I was seated. It was confusing to say the least. What made today different that he'd just decide to ignore the fact that I was still breathing? I couldn't even lie to myself; I was a little annoyed that he wasn't paying any attention to me. Hell, I'd stayed up half the night thinking of shit to say that would annoy him.

I ground my teeth together so tightly I made my jaw hurt. I wasn't aware of the concerned way Vincent was staring at the back of my head.

After class I went with my friends to the cafeteria where I quickly grabbed my lunch. I stayed and chatted for as long as I dared. Tifa went on in one ear the entire time while Reno ranted in the other. Needless to say, I got nothing from either conversation. Finally, I managed to detach myself from their grips and ran back to Jenova's classroom.

The door slammed behind me and Jenova jumped up, giving me a glare. I shrugged, oops, silly me. He tucked a loose chunk of hair back behind his ear and shuffled some papers together that he handed to me. "Here, you'll be grading these today, the answer sheet is attached to the front." He went back to his work and I stood staring.

After a few seconds, he looked up, sighed and then motioned to the same chair I had sat in yesterday. I check my backpack onto the floor and slammed down into the chair. He didn't even look up at me but I could see a vein in his forehead throb.

I thumbed through quiz papers with one hand and held my veggie wrap in the other. A glob of ranch almost escaped but I caught it with my tongue. The papers looked like they belonged to one of his geometry classes and by the looks of it, most of them had no clue what they were doing. I graded one quiz, handing out a failing grade before I let out a heavy sigh.

"Man, are you ever done grading papers?" I groaned out. It was driving me crazy grading all these things.

He let out a surprisingly unrefined snort at my outburst. "It does seem that once I finish one stack, there's always another one waiting."

I finished my wrap and continued onto the next quiz. This was a guy's quiz and it couldn't be more obvious that he hadn't studied. For the fifth question, a triangle proof, he proved the figure's shape with the help of Spiderman, Paris Hilton's underwear, and three pounds of Swiss cheese. I couldn't help but burst out laughing, almost choking on my banana in the process. Before Jenova could stop me, I scribbled a "+5" next to the question.

Jenova looked like he was about to say something to me but at that moment, the fire alarm rang. I moved to grab my backpack but Jenova motioned to me to leave it. "It's just a drill," he said. "The faculty was informed of it this morning."

I followed him out the nearest exit, clutching the remains of my lunch to my chest. I took out an Oreo and bit into it, just holding it between my teeth while I struggled to put everything else back in my paper lunch bag. I had just managed to get it all crammed in when my foot slipped out from underneath me. I made a desperate grab for the railing next to me.

Instead my hand grabbed Jenova's shirtsleeve and his hand wrapped around my upper arm, jerking me up.

"Thanks," I tried to mumble around the cookie still hanging out of my mouth. It sounded a little more like "Fanks" but whatever, he got the point. I went to move forward but found that I was still rooted in place by Jenova's white-hot hand on my upper arm. With a shake of his head, Jenova's eyes focused on me and he realized that he was still hanging onto me. He let got and step back quickly like I had been the one burning him with my touch. Jenova stomped down the stairs in front of me and I quickly followed, chomping on my cookie.

Absentmindedly, I rubbed my upper arm with my free hand and a shiver went through my body. Suddenly I was cold, even though my arm burned hot. After the fire drill, Jenova barely talked to me but it was all right—I could still feel the ghost of his touch on my arm.

8th period passed by me in a blur with Barret strangely silent and me happy for some reason. Maybe happy wasn't the right word, but than I couldn't describe how I felt. OK, so I might've got a little carried away when I spiked the volleyball into Mike's face—but I was kinda feeling good, you know?

After gym I was riffling through my orange track bag searching for a clean pair of socks to put on when Barret thumped down next to me on the bench. He had his heavy shoulder pads in hand and I wrinkled my nose up at them—expecting it to smell. But I underestimated Barret and the pads didn't smell any worse than my sneakers. I was impressed. Those pads usually smell worse than ass.

"You've been quiet." I commented, and he had been except for shaking me down to my bones when he sat down.

"Been thinking." He grunted, messing with a pair of muddy cleats.

"'Bout what?" I asked, unlacing a sneaker.

"I just feel bad about Tifa." Barret finally said, throwing his cleats down on the ground.

"Ah, well I think she's good. She seemed pretty excited about something today in lunch. I think she was talking about Rude." I said, waving it off with a nonchalant hand. I really couldn't be bothered with drama right now—not when I was walking on Cloud Nine. Pun not intended.

Barret grunted something and wandered off after that. I put on my clean socks and laced up a pair of old sneakers. Today's workout was to be an easy distance run and there was no need to use my newer trainers for something that wasn't very demanding. I wiggled my toes and could clearly see my socks through a hole.

I jogged around the field for a little before practice officially started. Tseng paired me up with two other guys who joked easily. Jenova wasn't there and I could feel my mood sink. But nothing could truly ruin the primal feeling of running for an hour. It felt good to pound the earth beneath my feet. The sweat that rolled down my back felt refreshing even when it rolled down my face and into my eyes.

Chapter 18 – Headfirst for Halos

Wednesday morning started with a bang as Yuffie almost knocked me down a flight of stairs. Luckily, I caught myself at the last minute or I would have probably been sidelined for the rest of the season. I could feel my heart racing as I realized how close I had come to ending my running career. Yuffie was babbling on to me at a mile a minute but I wasn't listening to a single word she was saying.

"Clo-uudd!" She wined, "Are you even listening to me?"

"Uh, what?" I replied, afraid she would start screeching at me.

Instead, she just threw her hands up in the air and muttered how typical it was of me. "That's Cloud for you—never paying attention when you're trying to talk to him!" I didn't bother pointing out that she'd almost just tossed me down a flight of stairs—I could see that comment ending painfully for me. "As I was saying," she went on, "There's a party this Friday and you need to come! I know you don't have a meet until Tuesday so you're free to come out."

"I don't know Yuffie, the last party didn't end so well." I wasn't really that reluctant to go to a party but it was never a good idea to give into Yuffie's demands so easily—I'd learned that the hard way.

"Come on, Tifa really wants you to go and you know how bummed out she has been!" Oh so we're playing that card, are we? How could I say no? "And she's been really upset that she got you in so much trouble."

I groaned at that. "I got myself in trouble. Me. Not Tifa."

At that moment, Reno joined us by slinging an arm casually over my shoulder and rumpling my already messy hair. "Did I hear the word "party"?" He asked with a devilish smile on his face.

"I swear you've got supersonic hearing!" Yuffie grumbled.

"Yuffie invited me out to a party this Friday." I supplied.

"Oh-ho! So you're going?" Yuffie said pouncing on my words the way a kitten would a piece of string.

"Sure, I'll go."

Aerith and Vincent were walking down the hallway towards us so I waved them over. As usual, Aerith was wearing a sundress and Vincent was in only dark colors. The two made quite the strange pair walking together.

"So Cloud, can't help but notice that Jenova doesn't seem to be acting like a grade-A dick to you lately." Reno butted in.

"I guess, I hadn't really noticed." I mumbled.

Aerith had a thoughtful expression on her face and I flushed, looking away. "And you haven't really been complaining about him. I wonder what made him change?" She asked.

"He probably caught a glimpse of Cloud's fine ass." Reno suggested with a snigger.

I rolled my eyes at him and punched him in the shoulder.

"No, I'm sure Mr. Jenova never even disliked Cloud in the first place!" Aerith exclaimed, clearly not feeling comfortable with the idea of a teacher just plain hating a student.

"Sure, I can see that. It's why he kept eye fucking Cloud in the middle of Math!"

"Reno!" I said, my jaw dropping and my cheeks turning a glowing shade of red. I punched him in the arm with enough force to let him know I was annoyed.

He didn't get the hint. "I mean—I swear I saw him stroking his-"

"OK! That's enough of that!" Yuffie jumped in, slapping a hand over Reno's mouth. After a few seconds Yuffie screeched and wiped her hand all over Reno's shirt. "He licked me! The weirdo licked me!"

"Don't be so excited Yuffie! You didn't taste that great!"

Yuffie and Reno kept screeching at one another and Aerith tried to give me a reassuring smile. I wish could be half as positive and optimistic as that girl is. Even on bad days she has a smile for anyone who needs it.

And then there was Vincent. I could feel his eyes burning holes into my back as he stood near me and silently watched. I looked towards him with a question in my eyes and mouthed, "What?" to him. He shook his hand and just walked away.

It wasn't until I had detention that Jenova actually paid me any attention. I'd finished grading the tests he'd given to me. I capped my pen and leaned back with a yawn and my sudden movement caused him to look up.

"Are you finished?" He asked solemnly, peering at me from over his glasses.

"Yup." I said and I haphazardly organized the papers in front of me and tossed them on his desk.

"Well, now you can take those tests and file them over here." He pointed to the filing cabinet slightly behind his chair and near the radiator. I got up and collected the tests up. There was barely any space behind the chair for me to stand and file. "Try the bottom draw," Jenova supplied.

I took a dry swallow and gingerly slid myself into the small space and kneel down. There wasn't much room back here and I tried to stay as close to the wall as I could. Jenova continued to work and I tried to concentrate on filing the papers correctly. Apparently Jenova not only looks like a neat freak but he is one.

When the bell rang my heart jumped into my mouth and I let out a small whoosh of air. I heard some rustling and when I looked up Jenova was leaning over me with a strange look on his face. He looked angry. I stood up slowly and he remained seated staring at me. Jenova's eyes followed me as I stood up and after a few seconds he finally moved his chair out of the way so that I could get past him. I slipped by and as I went, my leg brushed against his knees.

I walked out of that room as quickly as I could but I couldn't shake the strange feeling where my leg had touched his. Before I could get out the door, my body betrayed me and I inadvertently paused in the doorway and looked over my shoulder. He was staring right back.

Staring into his eyes sent a shiver through me and then I was off, like a deer in headlights. I was in the locker room before I even realized I was running.

I leaned back against my locker and let out a heavy breath. I could feel my stomach tingling and jumping like I had swallowed butterflies. A laugh bubbled up out of my mouth before I could stop it. Another one followed.

I didn't stop laughing until Barret came in to get changed. He gave me a strange look but I just waved it off and told him it was some joke someone had texted me. Barret took my words as truth and started talking about the party this weekend.

"I heard you were going?" He asked as he laced up his gym shorts.

Word gets around fast with my friends. I shrugged my shoulder anyway. "I don't know man... I kinda don't want to. Not after last time..." I trailed off thinking of my run in with Jenova.

Barret latched on to my comment even though I was hoping he wouldn't. "What happened last time?"

"You know... just typical party stuff?" I'm a terrible liar. Absolutely atrocious. If he doesn't see through this it'll a miracle.

He stared down at his big hands and replied in a dejected voice, "It's because of Tifa, isn't it?"

"What? Oh…" I fumbled around for an answer. "No, she's good—I was thinking of this drunk guy who almost vomited on me." I gave a weak laugh and rubbed my shoulder, trying to cover my discomfort.

"Oh… so is Tifa going to the party?" He asked.

"Uh yeah, she's going with Rude as far as I know. I'm not so big on parties and Tifa's usually the one who drags me to them."

Barrett's reply was a grunt as he fiddled with his lock. I looked over at him and sighed. I'd thought getting Tifa involved with Rude would make her feel better but it seemed like whenever I helped one friend, I hurt another. I just wish the two of them would try talking to one another or something. All of this dancing around was driving me up the wall.

That's it! I'm done meddling. Que sera sera. What will be will be. Besides, it's not really my place to do anything.

I managed to make it through gym without murdering someone with a volleyball and afterwards I was changing in the locker room by myself. The first away football game was today and so the locker room was mostly empty. A few guys on the soccer team stopped by to talk to me but they didn't stay long. I got changed in quiet and went outside, stepping out into an overcast day with a grimace on my face.

Wind tousled my hair and snapped my t-shirt around my torso. Days like this made me glad we had trails to hide in.

Some sophomores were already wandering around Coach Tseng when I got there and they all greeted me enthusiastically. Over the summer we'd done some tough workouts together and they'd taken to talking to me as often as they could. Nice kids but a little star struck. I wasn't anything special—just a little better at running than other people. With some hard work they could be the next top runners.

Tseng gave me a nod and over the next ten minutes, the rest of the team straggled over.

"Listen up everyone! Today's a workout day and you're going to be in groups of threes. I made up the groups because I want to mix it up a little—challenge some of you guys. Put you out of your comfort zone." Tseng announced after we came back from a warm up. Then he read out the groups from a piece of scrap paper he had in his pocket.

I was in a group with Tooley and Jenova. I usually ran with Tooley but when I spared him a glance, he looked a little nervous. I walked over to him and gave him a reassuring smack on the shoulder—it wasn't me he was nervous running with, it was the combination of Jenova and I together.

Tooley gave me a tentative smile and pulled one of his socks up his calf. Tseng continued to explain that the workout would be an exercise where you attempted to catch the person in front of you. The person with the slowest time would start out first and then the next slowest and so on. It was up to the fastest person to catch the other two in his group. There would be three exercises lasting ten minutes each.

On the first run, Tooley went out first and twenty-five seconds later, it was Jenova going out and ten seconds later it was my turn. I spend most of the run pacing myself off Jenova who was slowly catching up on Tooley. I stayed maybe twenty feet behind and I sometimes lost sight of Jenova around sharp turns. It started to rain softly, the drizzle making noise on the tree leaves.

In the last one hundred meters, I started to speed up; I had passed Tooley a long time ago. Jenova must have heard me coming because he sped up too and finished the run ahead of me by just a couple steps. I gritted my teeth in anger and resolved myself to get him the next time.

The second time Jenova started after me and once again we finished in the same positions, almost the same distance apart again. The final run ended the same way and the gritty taste of dust left a bitter residue in my mouth. My walk back to the locker room wasn't memorable but it was full of self-pitying sighs.

Chapter 18 – Free Falling

I yanked my sweaty shirt up over my head and there was a loud racket behind me. Barret and Reno came up behind me and both started talking to me at the same time. They practically fell all over themselves trying to talk to me both at the same time.

I held up my hands in front of me. "Woah, guy calm down. You two look like you're having some kind of aneurism."

Reno caught his breath first. "You won't—huff huff—believe what we just—huff—saw!" His face was flushed a bright red to match his hair. He'd stayed late for some unknown reason, maybe to practice for lacrosse or something. I didn't bother asking.

"Uhh… Bigfoot?"

"We saw Jenova in the showers," Barret began and I just raised a brow in response.

"Alright…"

"He has a tattoo!" Reno yelled out.

"Alright…"

"It's a tattoo of a cloud!" Reno yelled again.

Ok, that got a reaction out of me; my jaw dropped and I had to snap it shut with an audible click. "W-w-wait—what?" I managed to stammer out.

"Well, it's not just a cloud—it's more like the sky with a lot of clouds. Like there's more than one cloud and there are some birds too. It looks like you know… the sky but it fades into clouds." Barret tried to explain the tattoo and I thought I understood what he meant.

"Where is it?" I asked.

"On his back, from shoulder to shoulder," Reno supplied.

"Guys, please don't tell anyone." I begged. "This is so embarrassing…"

"I mean it's just a tattoo." Barret said.

"A tattoo of my name!" I retorted. "A very large tattoo of my name on his back! I don't need any more shit flying around about Jenova and me! This guy is actively trying to ruin my life! I just know it."

"Oh-ho!" Reno sang out. "I know why you don't want us talking about it! It's because you two are secretly lovers and he got that tattoo to proclaim his love to you!"

There was silence.

"Where do you come up with this shit?" I asked. "See, this is why I didn't want you to tell anyone. Idiots like you will start spreading rumors."

"Still, it's too weird to ignore." Barret muttered as he sat down on the bench next to me with a thud.

"I guess but I'm 100% sure that he got that tattoo before he even knew me. It's just a strange coincidence." I replied.

"Hey, maybe he hates you so much because you remind him of a drunken night when he decided he needed a gay as fuck tattoo." Reno said.

"I can't even fathom where you come up with this crap." I sighed and put a clean t-shirt on. I let the other two continue to come up with the meaning behind Jenova's tattoo.

Thursday went by without a hitch but I could feel Vincent's stare on the back of my neck. I tried asking him what was wrong but he just shook his head and claimed he was tired.

In fourth period Aerith giggled at me and hid her smile behind her folder.

"What? What's so funny," I asked.

"You! You're like a girl in love! You keep sighing and staring off in the distance! You look like you're day dreaming about your future as a married man with three kids and a white picket fence." She said with a giggle. Her brown hair was pulled into a French braid tied at the end with a ribbon. Her pink skirt was paired with a white halter-top. She looked like something out of an Abercrombie catalog.

"Me?! In love? No!" I yelped.

The teacher called for our attention and I was left to my thoughts, wondering why it was that I was acting this way. What had changed? I didn't think anything was any different—I sure felt the same. Maybe it was my new toothpaste.

I didn't even have a crush on anyone as far as I knew. Could you like someone and not know it? I guess it was possible but I couldn't picture myself being like that. I started worrying my lip. Maybe I was like that?

Could it be possible?

Could I somehow like someone? The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. All the butterflies in my stomach and the fluttering heartbeat—they were classic signs of a crush. But who? Who could I possibly like?

There really was only one option. Somehow I'd managed to fall for the biggest dick I'd ever known—the guy trying to make my life a living nightmare. How could this shit have happened? And like that I knew; the glances when I thought he wasn't looking, the lingering touches, the flushed cheeks—I had a crush on my math teacher. The man both attracted and repulsed me in a way I didn't think was possible.

I spent the rest of the day wondering if it was possible and the more I thought about it—the more I believed it was true. It just fit. It made sense and yet it was the hardest thing I'd ever had to admit to myself.

During my detention I was quiet and when I looked up, Jenova was looking at me.

"Is something wrong?" I asked.

"One more day," was his only response and he looked down at his desk.

He was right. There was only one day of detention left and that would mean the end of our alone time. With that, I was aware of how much I was going to miss annoying Jenova. Being the bane of his existence had become a fixture in my life. It was hard to believe that could change so easily.

"So, when did you become a teacher?" I asked, forcibly prompting conversation. He wasn't getting away so easily.

Surprised, Jenova looked up at me with alarmed eyes. It was so strange to imagine that I had caught that guy off guard that I couldn't hold in a laugh. He narrowed his eyes at me, immediately suspicious. "I'm not sure why." He responded, choosing his words slowly and carefully.

"Alright, where did you go to undergrad?"

"UCLA."

"What are your favorite events to run?"

"I used to like 5k's and 3,000's but now I like 10 and 15k's."

"How old are you?"

"I don't think that's really appropriate."

I leaned in forward, smelling blood in the water. "Well, you at least have to be 21-22 if you went through the school system in the right order. But judging from the shirt you wore to practice last week, you competed in college NCAA events as late as two years ago. So I'm going to guess 22 or 23."

He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms in front of him. "23."

"What's your favorite color?"

He didn't respond so I took that as my cue. "Well, you wear a lot of dark colors but the most common color clothes you own seem to be blue. But you have a pair of shorts that are a really faded grey so I bet they're your favorite. I think your favorite color is grey."

"Correct."

"What's your favorite running shoe brand?"

The bell rang before Jenova could answer me and I was so intent on the conversation that I jumped in surprised.

"You should get going." Jenova said as he gathered some papers in front of him. I took his advice and practically ran out of the room. His stare made me shiver.

During gym I was left alone since Barret had been called out of class to talk to his coach about yesterday's game. They'd won but Barret hadn't seemed that enthused about his own performance and just shook his head when I asked him how he did. I guessed his coach was trying to figure out what had gotten his all-star quarterback off his game. By the time the bell rang, Barret still wasn't back and I took that time to go on an easy run through the trails by myself. We had our first meet Monday and I wanted to make sure we remained the top in our division.

Later at practice, I was paired with Tooley and another guy to go on a long distance run. Tseng was absent and Jenova coached in his stead. Usually when we have long runs, Tseng runs in the trails with us and switches from group to group to keep track of our progress. Jenova did the same but he didn't meet up with our group.

It didn't really matter though because Tooley and Jackson distracted me with their dramatic retelling of some kid trying to explain to the teacher why it was that the essay he had handed in had included the sentence, "I like watching fat chicks masturbate and pour ice cream all over their breasts." It had resulted in a lot of stuttering and embarrassment on his part.

I tried to tell myself that it didn't matter that Jenova didn't run with us—that he wasn't trying to avoid me.

End Chapter 5

Author's note – Alright! Halfway mark! It only took me forever to finish writing this chapter. I'm the queen of all procrastinators. Bow before me. Remember, the more you harass me, the more likely I am to update. You see I get distracted very eas-oh! Piece of candy!


	6. Part 6

Curse of Curves

By: FearlessDranzer

Disclaimer: Sexy time. You have been warned.

Part 6

Chapter 19 – Friday, I'm in love

The sounds of moans and gasps filled me to the brim, creating a warm pooling sensation inside me. Hot caresses brushed against my skin—hands touching anywhere they could reach. Something silver shone in the moonlight and a kiss brought me to my knees.

It felt like I was burning yet there was a part of me drowning. Hands touched me, then a mouth causing my back to arch. A bolt of electricity rippled through my body and a soft moan escaped from between my lips.

My eyes ripped open and I sat up with a start, breathing heavily. Sunlight streaked in through my half-closed blinds and my sheets were tangled around my legs. I moved a blanket aside and groaned when I saw myself. A wet dream.

How embarrassing. What am I, thirteen? Would a little more self-control be so much to ask for?

With a few muttered curses, I cleaned myself up and got ready for another day of school.

In first period, Tifa talked almost nonstop as I attempted to complete our group worksheet. Occasionally she would jot down an answer but she was so excited, she kept forgetting about our assignment.

"I just can't believe I never saw it before! It's so damn obvious! I guess I just never would have thought that our little Aerith would have a crush on an older man. She's supposed to be the sensible one! But it makes so much sense! She's got him practically wrapped around her finger." She waved a pencil around to collaborate her point.

"Who?" I asked, trying to figure out the stoichiometry of 0.5 M CaCl reacting with 0.1 M HCl. I was failing miserably, my pencil making useless marks on the paper.

"Haven't you been listening?! Mr. Zack! They practically scream 'young couple in love'!" Tifa said, exasperated.

"What? Uh… I don't think I ever noticed it before." I finally gave up on our assignment and gave Tifa my full attention.

"That's because you're practically blind, Cloud! They're always making goo-goo eyes at each other! It's enough to make me sick!" Tifa said with an exaggerated sigh.

"I really think you're letting your imagination go wild." I said.

"Oh you would! You don't have a single romantic bone in your body!"

"Come on—Aerith would never do anything like that. Do you know how much trouble she could get in? Or how much trouble Zack would get in?" I said. Stories about teachers and students together never ended well.

"Love knows no bounds!"

"But Aerith? Seriously?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Alright! Maybe our golden girl would never do anything so dangerous but come on! They're always totally flirting! They'd make a great couple."

"Please stop playing matchmaker."

"Oh how romantic! Aerith might be hiding these secret feelings for Zack but she knows their love can never be!"

"Tifa… you've been watching too many terrible Lifetime movies."

"OK! Maybe it's a little far-fetched—can you blame a girl for dreaming?" Tifa continued talking about how all teenage girls want a little romance in their life even if they have to make it up themselves. I ignored her lament and instead focused on our past conversation. Why did it matter so much that I squash Tifa's idea? I had no proof it wasn't real and she was right—they did seem to have a relationship that was more intimate than it should be. But I didn't tell Tifa that—I just totally denied the idea of a relationship.

I mean maybe it wasn't a bad thing that I'd denied the sparks between Aerith and Zack—a student teacher relationship was extremely dangerous. Zack could lose his job and Aerith could tarnish her name and lose a chance at going to a good college. Neither of them were foolish enough to do something like that, right?

Neither were foolish enough to do something like what I'd done with Jenova. I'd been in his house—he'd picked me up and brought me back to his home. That was probably grounds to fire Jenova right there. A shiver rolled down my back at the thought of Jenova being in trouble for being nice to me. But those were the roles we played. He was teacher and I was student and there were lines that couldn't be crossed.

The idea that it was all forbidden did nothing to diffuse the desire that burned in me. I had to admit it to myself—I wanted Jenova. Some strange part of me was whispering in my ear that I needed him—that I wanted him. No matter how many times I hissed at it to shut up, it had sank its claws into my subconscious, hence my dream this morning.

I had to admit it to myself—I was sexually attracted to Jenova. Something about him stirred animalistic feelings inside of me. But that didn't mean I had a crush on him. It was just crazy teenage hormones messing with my head. How could I like someone like Jenova? He was cruel and aloof and had tried to make my life hell. I couldn't possibly like him—that would be ridiculous.

This was all too much. I had tests to take and races to run. I had a school record to destroy and I needed to decide on a college. I had too many things on my plate to worry about Jenova. I pushed all the strange feelings back into an empty part of my mind and continued to work on the chemical equation in front of me. Tifa hadn't stopped talking.

I entered my math classroom with a spring in my step and I couldn't deny the feeling of exuberance welling up in my chest—I wanted to see Jenova. I swung the door open and a strange woman greeted me. I flicked my eyes at the whiteboard and saw her name written in sprawling cursive. A sub. We had a substitute teacher.

As I settled down at my desk the teacher started talking.

"Alright everyone! I'm Ms. Takashiro. I'm your sub today because Mr. Jenova is at an all day parent-teacher conference. But don't worry—he left me a lesson plan for today and asked me to remind you that you still have a test next week."

I spent the rest of my day in haze—I was down but didn't know why. I just couldn't shake myself out of my funk; it was like I couldn't be happy anymore. As we left math class, Vincent gave me a sidelong look under his eyelashes that I didn't bother commenting on. If I was upset it was a given that Vincent would know about it—he was more keen on my personality changes than I could ever be. Yet I can't read him and that was entirely unfair. Vincent would forever be a blank page to me.

As I walked into the locker room to change for gym class, my pants started buzzing. With a little rummaging, I pulled out from phone to reveal a series of texts from Yuffie begging me to come to the party later tonight. I rolled my eyes at her and texted back to confirm that I would still be going but only for a little while. A party would be just the thing to distract me from my stupid teenage hormones. Half a second later, Yuffie sent me another text telling me how excited she was. I snorted at her over-enthusiastic manner and replied to her that I just really wanted to see Barret's face when he saw Tifa and Rude together.

That comment sparked some inquisitive texts but I told her that I couldn't text and she turned her inquiries to Tifa so that I could change in peace. After almost getting hit in the face by a dodgeball, I was done with gym class and back in the locker room with Barret. He talked to me about a freshman with a great throwing arm as I responded to Yuffie's texts.

"So Tifa and Rude? But I thought Tifa liked Barret and she caught him with another girl?" Yuffie texted.

I responded with a confused emoticon. "Yeah—he claims he was set up by a rival high school to look bad."

"What are we in some terrible 80's high school movie?"

I stayed in the locker room after the bell rang and did some of my English homework before practice began. I managed to finish that and moved onto re-doing my chemistry problems from earlier. Surprisingly, none of them were right considering I'd been distracted the entire time by Tifa. When it was time to go to practice I ended up being a couple of minutes late because I'd wanted to finish the last question I had. Being late didn't matter in the long run, though because neither coach was there.

Twenty-five guys sat around our usual meeting place and they looked as confused as I did. "Where's Tseng?" I asked, as I approached.

"No clue—he was teaching today so he should be here." Chang replied. Chang was a junior who was only running cross-country because he hadn't made the soccer team this year. He was a good kid and solid runner so we were more than happy to accept him into our fold.

Just then Murphy ran up and he was still wearing his jeans. "Those don't look like your running shorts, Murph!" One guy called out.

Murphy responded by shooting him the bird and coming to a stop in the middle of the group. "Jenova and Tseng couldn't be here at practice because they had some kind of emergency school-wide coaches meeting they have to attend. Tseng was called out in the middle of 8th period but he told me to tell you guys he wouldn't be here."

"Did he tell us if he wanted to run anyway?" I asked.

"Yeah—he said we could stay and run if we liked and do "fun run" for an hour." Murphy replied. "Who's with me?!" He called out.

"Murph, you're wearing jean—" Chang's protests were interrupted by Murphy leaning down and ripping off his jeans to reveal a pair of athletic shorts. "Very classy." Chang muttered with a roll of his eyes.

The team ended up splitting into thirds—mostly divided up by grade. The freshman and sophomores made up the largest group and they made a huge racket as they headed deeper into the trails for their distance run. The juniors went off in the opposite direction, down towards the streets surrounding the school. The seniors took off along the edge of the baseball field and within a few seconds, we were descending into the woods as well. We startled some deer with our entrance and they bounded off into the gloom, their only visible part being their white tails.

I sighed and breathed deep the wonderful smell of pine and dead leaves. This was what running was supposed to be like. Anyone who thought we were weird for wanting to run had never tried running in such a beautiful place. The scenery alone was enough to make you forget the monotony of moving your legs forward—each step allowing you to disappear further and further into the forest.

Running is when I do some of my most important thinking and it was during this run that I came to the conclusion that I might actually have a crush on Jenova. It would explain why I was so sad that he wasn't here and why I'd had that dream this morning. All the strange feelings I'd been getting in my stomach and the burning cheeks—it all made perfect sense. I just didn't really want to admit it to myself. Admitting it to myself would be like admitting failure—the guy who's records I'd been chasing after for three years was the one who'd ended up stealing my heart. Maybe I actually was stuck in a Lifetime movie.

Yuffie's party sounded exactly like what I needed to forget Jenova. Hey, who knew—maybe he'd be driving past me at 11:30 again. Or maybe I'd just go looking for him.

Chapter 20 – A Little Less 16 Candles and Little More Touch Me

I opened another dresser drawer with a groan. Never before had I actually cared about what I wore but for once I wanted to make a good impression. And all I had were jeans and track shirts. Typical. Finally, I settled on a pair of dark skinny jeans that Tifa always complimented me on. I paired the jeans with a dark red shirt that made my tan look even darker. This was as good as it was going to get.

I did one last double take in the mirror and grimaced at my hair. It was still slightly damp from an earlier shower so it hung a little limply. Running my hands through it, I tried to impart some sense of order to the mess on my head but I quickly realized that it was a useless mission. I picked up my room card and tucked it into the deepest section of my wallet before replacing it in my back pocket.

Yuffie had texted me the address earlier and Tifa had sent me a text telling me that she had just arrived so I hurried out of the building and to an off campus house. When I arrive it was 10:15 PM and there were about five guys milling on the front porch holding beers. They laughed loudly and one guy smacked the other on the back.

"Cloud!" A voice called out to me. It was Murphy and another guy from the team. I waved at them and stopped to chat for a few minutes. Murphy had a bandana tied around his head to keep an unruly mop of hair out of his eyes. The three of us discussed homecoming plans and Murphy eventually talked me into being the "R" in their Shinra High chest-painting group. This would probably be something I'd regret but they pretty much begged me to take part in it. How could I say no?

I finally detached myself from them and went inside where a guy from the ice hockey team slammed a cup of frothy beer in my hand. I vaguely recognized him from a history class last year. I managed to wander into the kitchen where I finally found Cid and Vincent. Cid was perched on the counter with an unlit cigarette dangling from his lips and Vincent was holding the wall up next to him.

Cid roped me into playing beer pong with him after his last failed round with Vincent. "You think a guy who was a sharpshooter could play a mean game of pong. But the fucker's useless! You have to help me redeem myself, man!"

I agreed to help him and drained my cup of beer. Vincent handed me a can from the cooler next to him and I thanked him with a nod. The best part about going to a private school for rich kids is the fact everyone is pretty much loaded. The off campus houses take turns throwing parties and they all fund it out of their pockets. Only students from other schools actually have to pay for their drinks. Surprisingly, there's no shortage of kids willing to pay $20 to rub elbows with the rich Shinra High kids.

Cid and I made it to the third rounds of the game before we were knocked out of the running by two members of the baseball team. One of the guys fist pounded me and told me how he was looking forward to running winter track.

"Should've joined cross-country. Could've gotten some good strength training in." I said.

The guy groaned and shook his head. "I tried that shit in 9th grade—never again, man. You guys are fucking crazy." I laughed and checked my phone. I had a text from Tifa telling me how she was dancing and that I should join. Dancing wasn't really my thing so I made up some excuse and she sent me back a sad face.

I could see Yuffie flirting with some transfer student who had a heavy accent. She probably wasn't interested in him but being the gossip queen that she is, she was probably using the flirting as a way to gather information about the new guy. He looked flustered to be the subject of all her attention and there was a blush occupying his checks.

Vincent was talking to some guys he knew from another school and Cid was out back smoking a cigarette. If I squinted really hard, I could see the back of Reno's head as he made out with a busty junior. I was surrounded by kids I knew but I still felt alone. I drained the remnants of my fourth beer and grabbed my fifth. It tasted like water and was barely carbonated.

I walked towards the front of the house and waved and Tifa and Yuffie who were both dancing in the middle of the living room with some other people. Barrett was sitting in the corner and he gave me a wave as he went back to moodily staring at Tifa enjoying herself with Rude. Ignoring the mass of gyrating bodies, I continued out the front door where I talked to Murphy again. He told me how he thought some rival school had lost their best runner to an ankle injury. It was good news to me because even though the guy was inconsistent, he could still be a pain in my ass if he was having a good day.

At 11:20, I finally left the party, going back to my dorm the long way. I let my feet lead me as I walked the familiar paths past the school and the faculty parking lot. Three years now I'd been doing this and suddenly it struck me that I'd be graduating this year. I wasn't yet ready to leave Shinra High but I tucked that into the back of my mind—I had months to go before I'd start worrying about that kind of stuff. Hell, I wasn't even sure what college I was going to at this point.

Why I was taking the long way home was a mystery even to myself. I was thinking about Jenova and a million other things and walking just seemed to take a place on the back burner. This wasn't unusual for me—I tend to let my feet lead me.

I swung up over the fence and landed lightly on my toes—I hadn't drunk enough to really mess up my coordination. The parking lot was empty and I struck out across it towards the far side. Except the parking lot wasn't completely empty; there was someone getting into their car a few feet away from me. They placed a briefcase and a duffel bag into the back seat of their car before straightening up and turning to look at me. I recognized that car.

As they turned, I was able to make out their features, which had previously been hidden in shadow. It was Jenova. Just like last time, he was leaving the school late and I could feel my heart speed up in my chest as we made eye contact. We stared at each other and I closed the gap between us, my legs striding forward without a second thought.

This was all just too much.

"You're here late." I said; my voice came out slurred. Maybe I was more drunk than I'd thought. Or maybe I should just play this up and see where it gets me.

He raised an eyebrow at me. "The same could be said of you." His deep voice rolled over me as he stared down out me and I realized that the look on his face wasn't cold and aloof. He actually appeared interested and as I stared longer, I realized that the corner of his lips was actually slightly lifted.

"I just happened to be in the neighborhood," I said, taking another step towards him. I didn't give a shit why he was here or how this was a ridiculous coincidence—I wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

"You have practice tomorrow."

"There's always practice on Saturday mornings."

"And you still went out tonight?"

"I'm heading home now," I replied. "Aren't I? And it's pretty early to be going home from a party."

"Are you going to be fine walking back by yourself?" He asked as I swayed on my feet. Preciously the response I was looking for.

"Oh yeah." I said, walking past him and stumbling on the edge of the curb. He wrapped his hand around my bicep and yanked me backwards so that I wouldn't fall forward.

"Maybe I should give you a ride." He said, his brows drawn together.

I straightened up and he let go of my arm, his hand trailing over my skin and setting it on fire. "Wait—I left my room key in my room."

"It's still early, can't you talk to security?"

"They get me in trouble for drinking and then I won't be able to run in the next meet."

"You shouldn't be drinking anyway—you're an athlete."

"An athlete who had a stressful week and maybe wanted to have a night of fun." I leaned back on his car and ran my hand over the smooth paint. Unsurprisingly, his car was completely clean—with a car that expensive, it deserved to be pristine. I caught Jenova's eye following my hand and I smiled up at him.

"Alright, come on. Get in the car." He said to me, his voice sounded strained and I laughed at him. I peeled myself away from the car and went around to the passenger side, sliding onto the leather seats. The seats were plush and they enveloped me in the Jenova's smell. A second later he sat himself in the car and turned the ignition on. Classic rock quietly filled the car and he looked over at me with an unreadable emotion on his face. I smiled at him and leaned my head back against the seat.

Jenova reversed and drove out of the parking lot, the powerful engine in the car barely making a sound as it purred down the road. The murmuring of the engine and the white noise of the radio lured me into shutting my eyes. I sighed and lost my fight with sleep.

I woke up with a dry mouth in a bed I didn't recognize. After a few seconds I realized where I was and that I was missing most of my clothes. I couldn't remember if Jenova had helped me undress or if he had done all this himself. The clock read three in morning but I wasn't tired anymore.

That's the thing with drinking—I get so tired that I'll just fall asleep anywhere that's slightly comfortable. The second I stop moving, the fatigue would hit me and I'd be dead to the world. But now I was awake. Thank God there was a cold glass of water resting on the table next to the bed. I downed it so fast that I was out of breath when I was done.

Gingerly, I threw the sheets back and touched my feet to the cold hardwood floor. I wandered down the hallway looking in all the doors before I found the one I was looking for. No time for second thoughts and doubts now—I'd regret it if I didn't take advantage of the situation. Hell, this was why I was here in the first place, to get closer to Jenova.

It was time to grow a pair Cloud.

His room was dark thanks to the thick curtains that covered his windows and prevented the moonlight from penetrating his sleep. His sheets were dark but his pale skin and hair shone in the murky darkness. He didn't wake up when I opened the door or when I slide the sheets back but his eyes flickered open and he grabbed my arm when I got in the bed next to him.

"What?" He asked, his voice groggy with sleep.

I didn't say anything; my breath was caught in my throat as I stared into his heavy half-lidded eyes. I leaned in and pressed my lips against his, softly, tentatively. I pulled back first and he looked back at me, his eyes suddenly much more alert. When he didn't say anything I leaned back in and kissed him again. This time he responded, his lips moved against mine and the hand that clutched my arm softened its grip.

I took this as a good sign and eased my body closer to his, our legs wrapped together and I grabbed a handful of his hair as I held his jaw. When I let out a breathy sign he pulled away from me. "You're drunk," he said.

"No I'm not," I mumbled as I leaned back into his kiss and for a few seconds he kissed me back before pulling away again.

He grabbed my jaw in his hand so that he could stare me in the eye before shaking his head. I tried to kiss him again but his hand kept me away. "What you'll only kiss me when you think I'm drunk?" I asked, slightly hurt that he was pushing me away.

"If you leave my room now, I'll forget this ever happened." Jenova said. His voice was quiet and I saw nothing but honesty in his expression but I'd come to far to be denied now.

"No." I replied. "You don't want me to go… I can tell." I reached my hand down under the sheets and searched until I found what I was looking for. His eyes stared back at me, dark and liquid as I caressed him softly.

This time he leaned in and kissed me, a desperate and hard kiss that stole my breath away. I'd been kissed before—at parties, behind closed doors, and in the woods but those kisses were nothing compared to this. I gripped him through his pajama bottoms and he ground his hips into me. He rolled and without breaking the kiss, I was on my back and he was on top of me.

His heavier weight forced my body deeper into the mattress and he pulled away for a second to look at me and whatever he saw made him lean back in for another kiss. Then he kissed a line down my jaw and neck, setting my skin on fire. I ran my hands along his chest, feeling his muscles contracting under my touch. He bit my neck hard enough to make my back arch and he liked that so much he did it again. I moaned and he pulled back shaking his head.

He rolled off me and onto his side of the bed, "Last chance. Leave now and I'll forget this ever happened." He repeated.

I shook my head, not trusting my voice to speak. He rolled over onto his back and squared his shoulders against me. I sighed and nestled myself in against his naked back, breathing his scent in deep. His shoulders stiffened at first but then he relaxed against me and eventually his breathing evened out and I knew he was asleep.

Soon it was my turn and I slept.

Chapter 21 – The Beast and The Harlot

I awoke in the morning to the smell of coffee. I was also alone. My mind flashed back to last night and a shiver travelled down my back. Had it actually happened? Did I dream everything? No, I couldn't have. I was in a different room from the first time I had woken up. I was now in Jenova's bed.

I let my nose lead me to the kitchen and it was just like the last time I was at Jenova's house—he sat there like an avenging angel, scowling faintly into a mug of coffee. My bare feet made only the slightest noise on the floor but it was enough to alert Jenova to my presence.

He looked up at me with a bland expression on his face. His hair was braided and over one shoulder. There was a moment of silence between us before he chose to break it. "Why?"

"I wanted to," I replied with a shrug as if it was as simple as that. But it wasn't and my heart was racing as I watched him process my answer. I moved a step closer and when he didn't stop me, I reached a hand forward to touch his braid. He caught my hand and looked at me sharply.

"I'm a teacher and you're a student."

"I'm only you're student in school." I replied, knowing that I was toeing the line and what I was saying to him could cost him his entire future. This was the exact reason why I argued against Aerith and Zack's relationship—because it was forbidden. It could ruin my life and it would certainly ruin his. Hell, I wasn't even eighteen yet—he could be arrested for being with a minor.

Jenova didn't have a response to this and I moved closer to him, pushing his arms out of the way and straddling his lap. I approached him slowly, giving him ample opportunity to stop my advance if he wanted to. But he didn't and I leaned forward to kiss him and he reciprocated.

I kissed him tenderly and his lips moved against mine. He ran his hand down my back and I arched into him. Jenova released a breath of air and suddenly I was on my back on the table. A coffee mug hit the floor and the newspaper crinkled under my back but neither of us took any notice.

His hungry mouth descended on mine and I wound my fingers in his hair, ruining the neat braid. As we kissed I marveled at how quickly I'd been able to get him like this. I'd only just decided I wanted this and I wasn't risking as much as him by doing this. I could only conclude that he'd wanted to do this for a while. Suddenly, all of my friends' teasing and all of his looks fell into place.

Everything Jenova did—the looks, the treatment, the attitude—he'd wanted this longer than I had. He'd been watching me and wanted me and that thought sent shivers down my spine. Jenova pulled the hem of my t-shirt up and I leaned forward so that he could yank it up and over my head. He ran a large hand over my flat stomach and tucked his fingers into the elastic of my boxers. He looked up at me but I wasn't going to stop him.

Instead of taking them off like I thought he would, Jenova rubbed his hand over the bulge in my boxers and snuck up the leg of my underwear. His hand closed around my hot flesh and I moaned, arching into his touch. He leaned down and kissed me fervently as he continued to work his hand.

It was like a fire had been lit through my body and I never wanted this moment to end. But sooner than I would've liked, my pent up sexual frustration was spent and my boxers were dirty. With that Jenova stood back up.

"Take and shower and get dressed—you're going home." He said.

I opened my mouth to protest but he cut me off with a stern look and I realized that some parts of our student-teacher relationship didn't stop outside of school. I guess it was in our nature.

A half an hour later, I was sitting next to a silent Jenova as he pulled up in front of my dorm building. He unlocked the door and told me, "Someone in there should let you in and you'll have enough time to get changed and make it to practice."

I didn't move though. Some part of me still felt dirty even after my earlier shower. I was feeling used even though I hadn't done any sexual favors. "Don't I at least get a kiss?" Desperate for something that would make it seem like this morning's event would happen again.

Jenova's hard look and lack of motion gave me my answer. We wouldn't have another morning like this again and I got out of the car with a heavy heart. A hand wrapped around my wrist and pulled me back down and his lips met mine. There was nothing tender about this kiss. I didn't really expect there to be.

"Now go."

I nodded and quickly left, heading up into my room after explaining to a security guard that I didn't have my key card—had to keep up appearances for Jenova. The card burned a hole in my wallet the entire time. Jenova never had to know the extent of my ploy to get him alone and in a compromising situation.

Monday mornings are brutal no matter how much of a morning person you are. Every Monday I rise to fight the sun shining in my windows and every Monday it defeats me. So it was very surprising that this Monday I was actually at school early. But actually it wasn't so surprising if you knew where I was going.

I peered into the window of the classroom and saw Jenova bent over a laptop tying away. His glasses were pushed to the top of his head and he did a double take when I opened the door and walked in.

"Do you want something, Cloud?" He asked, going back to his work.

"Yes, I do." I said simply allowing my feet to walk towards him. I'm not used to following my gut in these types of things—I like to play it safe. Unfortunately, if I played it safe, I would never get what I wanted. And to be honest, there's very little in my life that I want. True, I want to destroy Jenova's school record but that was something that I had to do for myself—granted his training was probably a huge part in me getting there but seducing him was something I needed to act on. Even if I never voiced my desire to get his record, anyone with eyes knew I was planning on it.

I sat myself on the corner of his desk, so close to his forearm that I could have sworn I felt the heat radiating off of his forearm. He looked down at me and than back up. "Are you going to be teaching class today?"

"Yes, it was just for one day." He answered. He glanced down at my lips and than back up at my eyes but that second was enough to let me know that he'd been thinking about our Saturday morning too. That confirmation was what gave me the final push to lean over and try and kiss him again.

He pulled back away and held up his hands in front of himself.

"What? You only want to kiss me when you think I'm drunk? I'm not good enough for you?" I asked softly, trying to hide my hurt.

"Cloud, you're…" He trailed off as he tried to answer me—his words cut off. Frustrated, he ran a hand through his hair, causing it to fall in messy disarray. I knew better than to reach forward and fix it but I desperately wanted to.

"I'm a teacher and we're in school. You said it yourself; when we're in school you're the student and I'm the teacher. Cloud—you're not even eighteen. Something like this could ruin your future." He said, always the reasonable and responsible one.

"I know. Trust me, I know. But I also know that you want this—just like I do."

"Cloud…"

"Just one kiss and then I'll leave. Just one more and then we can be student and teacher again.

What I was asking him to do was pretty dangerous considering all anyone had to do was walk past the room and look in the window and they'd see something terrible. I was banking that it was still too early for students to be going to class—most of them were probably only just arriving at school.

With a growl he gave in and dragged my face over to his using the collar of my t-shirt. He kissed me hard and was unforgiving when he shoved his tongue in my mouth at the slightest hint of weakness. As quickly as the kiss started he pulled away and latched his mouth to an exposed portion of skin near my collarbone. His mouth sucked hard and a few seconds later he pulled back and let go of me. There were two pink spots on his cheeks and he was breathing quite hard.

"Now get to class."

I hopped off his desk quickly and ran to my locker; the ferocity of his kiss frightened and thrilled me. When I looked back over my shoulder, his eyes met mine and they were filled with hunger. What was I getting myself into?

End Part 6

Author's Note: You know the deal—tell me what you think and don't be afraid to harass me for updates. The story is more than halfway done at this point. I'm up to chapter 22 out of 32. Ten more! That equals out to about three more parts total.


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